City resident loses Rs80K in online fraud

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 20

A 28-year-old resident of Sector 19-B in Chandigarh lost Rs 80,000 within minutes after he searched for the customer care number of a courier company.

According to and FIR filed at the Mansa Devi Complex police station, the complainant, identified as Anmol Gilhotra, was expecting a delivery from e-commerce website Flipkart when he became a victim of the online fraud.

The complainant told the police that he got a message from the courier company, Blue Dart, that his order hasn’t been delivered.

When he tried to contact the courier company’s purported number he found on Google, it was constantly busy.

A few minutes later, he got a call back from the same number and the person on the line said his order was returned to them, hence it will cost him Rs 9 for another delivery attempt.

“Following his instructions, the complainant opened the link shared on his number. Within minutes, Rs 80,000 got deducted from his bank account. When he tried to call on the same number, it was switched off,” the FIR reads.

A case has been registered under Section 71 of the IT Act and 417 of the IPC against unidentified persons.