Journalist duped of Rs 1 lakh cyber-fraudster while placing online order

A 30-year-old journalist, who picked up a number from the internet to place an order for liquor online, was duped of more than Rs 1 lakh by a cyber-fraudster who impersonated a wine shop employee and tricked her into sending the money.

An FIR was registered by her with Andheri police station on Friday.

The journalist told police that she works for a digital foundation and had come to Mumbai to attend a friend’s marriage. On November 25, she wanted to order vodka and searched on the internet for wine shops in the vicinity of her rented place. She got a number purported to be of



a wine shop on Andheri Kurla Road.

When she called the number, the woman was asked to pay Rs 450 and promised that the liquor will be delivered to her home in 20 minutes. Sometime after making the payment, she received a phone call from the fraudster who said their delivery boy had met with an accident and so he wanted to refund her money.

He sent a QR code to refund the money but the code was actually for transferring money from her account. She scanned the QR code and authorised the transaction. Within minutes Rs 1.05 lakh was withdrawn from her account in multiple transactions.