24-yr-old singer duped of 28K in online wine fraud

A 24-year-old singer became the latest victim of cyber fraud when she went online in search of a wine shop. The fraudster posing as shopkeeper lured her into a trap and swindled 28,000 from her account.

The incident took place last week when the singer a resident of Vile Parle had gone for a party at her friend's house in Goregaon. Since only home delivery of liquor was allowed last week due to the lockdown restrictions, the singer went online in search of liquor shops nearby and found one with the name Girnar Wines.

She contacted the number given on the search engine and placed order of two bottles of gin and 8 soda bottles. The 'shopkeeper' assured her timely delivery and asked her to pay 2,600 online, for payment he sent a QR code on her WhatsApp.

As soon as she scanned the QR code 28,000 debited from her account, she realised that she had been duped and tried to confront the person, however, by the time he had already disconnected the phone and stopped answering her calls.

The singer first approached the bank with her complaint however, they said they would take 90 days for Investigating the case. The singer then approached the Vanrai police station and lodged her complaint.

Based on her complaint we have registered an offence under section 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 ( cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with section 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology act, said a police officer from Vanrai police station.