A 50-year-old interior decorator, while trying to purchase a secondhand motorbike, was allegedly duped of ₹35,000 by a seller on at an online marketplace, the police said.
The incident took place in April this year when the man, Pradeep Gupta, a resident of Pioneer Park in Sector 61, found the motorcycle online at a cheap price. He contacted the seller, who introduced himself as one Aakash Bansal, an Army official, who wanted to sell his Bullet motorcycle as it was of no use to him at his posting. A deal was finalised for ₹70,000.
Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that the suspect shared his picture in uniform and sent all photocopies of the registration and insurance documents, PAN card and his Army identity card to gain the buyer’s trust. “He, initially, transferred the token amount of ₹5,000 through Paytm on April 4 and another ₹2,000 on April 6. Gupta asked him to send the motorcycle through a logistics company. On April 7, the victim received a call from a man posing as a transporter and asked him to transfer 50% of the total amount so that they could release the shipment,” he said.
The police said the victim transferred the amount and after waiting for two hours, called the transporter, who then sought the entire payment.
Gupta said that he called the seller, but his calls went unanswered and his number was blocked subsequently. After waiting for about 10 days and not receiving the bike, the victim contacted the police. “I realised that I had been duped and I filed a complained at the Sector 65 police station,” he said.
The case was handed over to the cyber crime cell, who conducted an investigation and submitted a report for filing an FIR under sections 420 (cheating) and 406(criminal breach of trust) of the IPC and Section 66B of the Information Technology Act.
The police said they have traced the location but are yet to identify the suspect.
