Hamirpur woman loses over Rs 21 lakh in ‘franchise fraud’

Hamirpur, March 3

A woman here was allegedly duped of over Rs 21 lakh by online fraudsters on the pretext of providing her with a franchise of a company, the police said today.

Monica, a resident of Hamirpur’s Dalchera, complained that in February she contacted a Noida-based company’s manager for a franchise after seeing their advertisement on Facebook.

A meeting was held via a video call and a deal was finalised to give the franchise of the company to the victim.

She was told that the turnover of the company was around Rs 400 crore. Lured by the opportunity to get franchise of the company, she deposited Rs 21.64 lakh in the account number given by the company employees, she said.

However, once the money was deposited, she did not get any response from the manager and other employees following which she contacted the police.

Superintendent of Police (Hamirpur) Aakriti Sharma said a case had been registered at the Deotsidh police chowki and an investigation was underway.