Panchkula man conned online, loses Rs 16.70L

Panchkula, December 20

A resident of Sector 4 here fell prey to a cyber scam while attempting to retrieve funds from investments he had made in an insurance scheme abroad. The victim lost over Rs 16.70 lakh to scammers.

Pawan Kumar (62) said he had been investing in insurance schemes for the past many years. He said he got an opportunity to invest in an insurance scheme abroad, which assured a hefty sum. Lured by the assurances, the man invested over Rs 5 lakh in the scheme.

He said, “In June this year, I received an email asking me to go to the UK to retrieve the money. Later, I was offered a consultant who, on payment of fees, will retrieve the assured Rs 7 crore for him. Thereafter, I paid Rs 4.61 lakh into a Jaipur-based bank account as per directions. Similarly, I made further payments of Rs 4.97 lakh, Rs 80,000, Rs 2.51 lakh and others on different occasions, but I did not get the proposed debit card for retrieval of funds.”

The complainant stated that he smelled a rat when the agents who contacted him again sought further payments of 8000 USD. He added, “I had made the above payments through RTGS.”

On the basis of the complaint, the Panchkula cybercrime police have registered a case against unidentified persons under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC and started a probe.