Mumbai: Man who cheated 32 by replacing online orders with bricks, old slippers arrested

An officer from unit 2 of the crime branch said they had received a complaint from a teleshopping company that several of their customers were being duped by someone.

As per the complaint, some of their customers who had placed orders online were being approached by an imposter days before the actual delivery of the order.

The accused would target people purchasing things online using the “cash on delivery” option. He would give a box to the complainant, along with a forged bill of the item they ordered. He would then take money from the customer and flee before they opened the box to find either bricks or old slippers in them.

After receiving nearly 32 such complaints from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai areas, the complainant approached the police, following which an FIR was registered at the DB Marg police station last week.

DCP Vinay Kumar Rathod also asked the crime branch to investigate the matter. An officer got a tip-off that a person involved in the case was residing in Airoli area near Thane.

Accordingly, the police laid a trap and arrested him.

On interrogation, the police found that the accused, Kishan Singh, was a former employee of a call centre through which the orders had been placed.

“He told us that he left work at the call centre in November 2016. Since he needed money, he tried to use the knowledge he acquired while working at the call centre,” said inspector Bhaskar Kadam.

“After tracking an order, he would get the order number. He would then call up the company that was to deliver the product with the order number and claim to be the person who placed the order. From them, he would get the address and telephone number of the customers,” Kadam said.

The accused would then reach the address a day before the actual order date and deliver the packet containing bricks or old slippers to the unsuspecting customers. He would take the money and flee the spot.