BEST BUS DRIVER DEFRAUDED OF ₹1 L IN ONLINE LOAN FRAUD

MUMBAI: A 29-year-old BEST bus driver has been cheated of ₹ 1 lakh by frauds who posed as employees of a finance company. The driver had applied for a personal loan after seeing an advertisement on social media about an easy and quick personal loan.

As per the police, the complainant, Pravin Sawant needed a personal loan. Therefore, he clicked the link and filled in all the details which were asked in the form.

“He got a call from a person who said he was speaking from the finance company. Congratulating him, the caller said his loan was cleared. However, he should pay ₹2,000 as file preparation charges and send him a QR code to enable him to pay the charges,” said the police.

He added that when the bus driver scanned it, a message popped up with the finance company’s name and he, therefore, paid the money.

Later, he got a call from a person who claimed to be calling from SBI and told him that he should pay ₹6,275 as insurance for the loan. Subsequently, he was asked to pay more money to clear the loan as there were problems with his CIBIL score. He accordingly paid ₹9,990 for the same, later he was asked to pay various taxes for the loan.

“They even told him that some amounts would be refundable with the loan,” said the police.

It added that when Sawant said he didn’t want the loan they even asked him to pay ₹15,300 for the cancellation of the loan.

“This way they cheated Sawant to the tune of ₹1 lakh,” said the officer.

A case has been registered by the police against unknown people under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.