Pune: Man loses Rs 84,504 in cyber fraud after posting ad to sell sofa set

Cyber fraudster stole Rs 84,504 from the bank accounts of a man who posted an advertisement to sell his furniture on an online shopping portal.

The victim, a 41-year-old resident of Wakad, lodged a complaint at the Wakad police station on Thursday.

The police said the complainant had posted an advertisement on OLX to sell his sofa set. A fraudster, posing as a buyer, contacted the complainant on his cell phone. The fraudster claimed he had purchased the sofa set, and forwarded a QR code to the complainant’s cell phone. The fraudster asked the complainant to scan the QR code so he could make an online payment for the sofa set.

But soon after the complainant scanned the QR code, Rs 45,000 was withdrawn from his bank account. This transaction took place on December 30, 2021.

On January 2, 2022, Rs 39,504 was transferred from the complainant’s credit card account.

The complainant claimed in the FIR he had not shared details of his password or pin number of the credit card.

The police has booked the unidentified cyber fraudster under sections 419, 420 of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act.