Posing as Army officers, cyber frauds dupe electronics solution firm of Rs 14 lakh

An FIR was registered by the 54-year-old proprietor of the electronics solutions company, which provides various interface and connectivity solutions for digital devices. In December last year, the complainant got a call from a man who identified himself as an officer from the Indian Army in Pune and showed interest in purchasing an interface device advertised on the company website.

After discussing the pricing and payment, the complainant was asked to send the device to an address ‘Commando Office, Satara’ which, police probe has revealed, is a fake address. The complainant sent the callers a bill of Rs 1 lakh after dispatching the product, with the expectation that she would receive payment from the Indian Army.

According to police, some time later, the caller approached her again saying, as per the procedure, she will have to pay an amount before she is paid for the product delivered. The complainant questioned the logic of the procedure and refused to pay. The caller then threatened that the Army would register a case against her in Delhi and that her company will be blacklisted.

Over the next two days, she was coerced into making some payments and also manipulated into making some of them multiple times as the cyber frauds claimed that the transfers were not successful. The complainant lost Rs 14.1 lakh in 15 transactions to the cyber frauds.

Over the next several days, she tried to contact the callers asking for the money back but there was no response. She subsequently approached the police and an FIR was registered.

Officials said that they are scanning the contact numbers and bank accounts used by the cyber frauds for the crime.