Chandigarh heritage panel member Ajay Jagga cheated of `87K

The fraudsters pretended to be representatives of the German Embassy in New Delhi, whom Jagga had called to send new year greetings in December, last year.

Jagga said, “I found the number of the German Embassy on the internet. I called them to ascertain the name of the head of legal consultant in the embassy on December 29 last year. The call attendant told me that the embassy has started charging a minimal fee to ascertain the information from the embassy. I agreed to pay the minimal price and the caller told me that the embassy only accepts the charges paid through VFS Global payment forms. The caller shared the online form with me. I filled it and subsequently, Rs 87,000 was debited from my account in three transactions. I called the representatives of Karnataka Bank and also alerted the cyber crime helpline numbers.”

Jagga further said, “I had lodged a police complaint on the same day but received a response from the Chandigarh police after one month. Later, a police officer told me that my complaint was being verified. An FIR was registered yesterday (Monday).”

A case was finally registered at the Cyber Crime Cell police station.

Jagga, a resident of Sector 21, is a vocal voice against the auction of Chandigarh heritage items in foreign lands. He takes up these auctions with foreign embassies regularly.