Pune man falls prey to online car purchase scam, duped of Rs 1.28 lakh

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A Pune resident who works for a private firm there was duped of Rs 1.28 lakh while purchasing a car. The 25-year-old man was conned by online fraudsters on the pretext of selling him a second-hand car via an online resale platform.

Pune Police have informed that the alleged crime occurred between the months of May and mid-September. The plaintiff had got in touch with the suspect conman earlier this year after seeing a car advertisement online. As per the purchase deal between the two, he then paid Rs 1.28 lakh to the fraudster over the next four months in installments.

The victim didn’t smell a rat all this while because the unidentified suspect kept promising to deliver the car to him in a while, reported the Indian Express.

He realised he has been duped, after his contact person stopped taking his calls September 11 onward. He then approached Yerawada Police Station to file a complaint.

Notably, another such case was registered at Pune’s Chinchwad Police Station. Following a similar modus operandi, a woman had duped a 39-year-old resident of Udyognagar on the pretext of helping him out with an insurance policy.

The youth was cheated of Rs 1.31 lakh by the scamsters who guised themselves as representatives of an insurance company where the victim had bought a policy. He had received multiple calls starting July, coaxing him to transfer money to unidentified bank accounts. Several excuses related to his policy were used by one man and a woman to dupe him.

He also took too long to realise he was cheated and was siphoned off a large sum of money by the time he had approached the police to report the incident.