Online fraud: Girgaon man loses Rs 86,000

A 48-year-old Girgaon resident was cheated by an online team of fraudsters, who lured him with a lottery coupon of Rs 11 lakh. Neel Mehta fell prey to this online fraud and lost Rs 86,000 in the process. He then filed a first information report with the VP Road police station.

According to Mehta, he received a call from the accused Sukhdev Dhali informing that he had won a lottery of Rs 11 lakh. The accused caller informed Mehta that he had purchased some household material few months ago and with that transaction he had won the said amount.

The accused then sent the lottery tickets and the letterhead of the online shopping portal and subsequently Mehta fell for the caller’s story. After winning Mehta’s confidence, Dhali began to demand money from Mehta.

Initially, he took Rs 2,600 for registering Mehta’s name for the lottery. Later Dhali’s accountant, Ashok Kumar called Mehta and asked him to pay Rs 11,000, which he claimed were GST fees — one per cent of the total lottery amount.

After paying the GST fees, Kumar asked him to pay two per cent as income tax return and took Rs 22,000, which Mehta paid. Later Dhali and his accomplices demanded 4.5 per cent of the total prize money, claiming it was needed to release the prize money and Mehta then paid Rs 49,500. After falling prey to these demands, Mehta realised that he had still not received any prize money.

A worried Mehta narrated the entire episode to his family members, who told him plainly that he had been duped by fraudsters and they will not be returning any money to him. Mehta then approached the VP Road police station and registered an offence under IPC section of cheating (420) and Information Technology Act.