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Cyber criminals allegedly posing as senior Army officers duped a father-son duo to the tune of Rs 2 lakh in Pune district recently, said the police Monday.
They added that an FIR has been registered with the Nigdi police station in Pimpri-Chinchwad Saturday. The complainant, 20, has alleged that the fraudsters duped him and his father by initially showing interest in renting their property.
The father-son duo had on June 5 listed their property for rent on multiple real estate websites. As per the complaint, a person called them up on June 6, introducing himself as an Army officer who was soon going to be posted at a military unit in Dehu Road and thus required a house on rent. After initial negotiations, the complainants asked the man to transfer the deposit and first rent amount of Rs 30,000 and Rs 13,000, respectively. The man allegedly told the property owners that someone from his Army establishment would get in touch for further transactions.
The police said the fraudster asked the victims to transfer some money to his account to ‘establish a contact’ and promised to return the amount plus the payment required. The father-son duo also transferred money to other bank accounts over the next few days as several people identified themselves as senior Army officers who were colleagues of the original caller. They kept telling the victims that the transactions had failed and made them transfer more money. They even shared fake identity documents with the victims to win their trust, the police said.
Inspector Vishwajeet Khule, who is probing the case, said the victims realised that they have been cheated after losing Rs 2 lakh and when the callers went incommunicado. The police have launched a probe based on cell phone numbers and bank accounts used by the suspects, Khule added.
The police said cyber criminals dupe people through a number of ways. “It has been observed that if these frauds are reported within a few hours immediately after the money is lost, efforts can be initiated by the police to recover the amount. This short period is referred to as ‘golden hours’ and it may vary depending on the specific type of cyber fraud committed,” a police officer said.