Bengaluru techie tries to sell bed on OLX, ends up losing Rs 68 lakh

A Bengaluru man has lost Rs 68 lakh to scammers

A Bengaluru-based techie lost Rs 68 lakh while trying to sell a used bed on OLX for Rs 15,000. According to a Times of India report, the 39-year-old engineer provided his OTP (one time password) to scammers posing as buyers and lost Rs 68 lakh over the course of three days.

Bengaluru Police has called it the biggest loss ever in such a scam.

Aadish (name changed) recently posted an ad on OLX trying to sell an old bed. He quoted a price of Rs 15,000 and was soon approached by a person claiming to be one Rohit Sharma. Sharma called Aadish on December 6 saying he was interested in purchasing the bed.

After negotiating the price, Sharma told Bengaluru-based Aadish that he would transfer the money through a digital payments app. A few minutes later, he again called up the techie to say he was not able to transfer the money.

Sharma told Aadish to send Rs 5 to his UPI ID, promising to return the amount. Aadish did as told and Sharma returned Rs 10 to him. Later, the scammer again told the techie to send him Rs 5,000 and returned Rs 10,000 to him.

After this, Sharma told Aadish to send him Rs 7,500, promising to return Rs 15,000. Sharma then claimed he had accidentally sent him Rs 30,000 and asked Aadish to return the money by clicking on a link and sharing the OTP, according to the Times of India report.

Money started to disappear from Aadish’s account after that. He told TOI that Sharma kept asking him to send money, claiming that technical problems were preventing him from sending the money back. “I assumed he was a trader with little knowledge of online payments,” the engineer said.

“The next links he shared was in the lakhs. As I started losing money through IMPS transfer from my account I asked him to return the same,” said Aadish.

“Sharma managed to keep me engaged, saying he was making all efforts to return my money, and I continued to send money to him. Sharma then gave me another account number in the name of one Rajesh Mishra. Twice I sent Rs 15 lakh and once Rs 30 lakh. In all, I lost Rs 68.6 lakh,” he added.

Aadish claims he lost the money between December 6 and December 8. He realised he had been scammed when Sharma continued to ask for more money. He then approached the police, who have registered a case based on his complaint.