The police managed to freeze the account

MUMBAI: A 32-year-old man recently fell prey to a honeytrap as well as his greed and ended up losing Rs 1.3 lakh in 24 hours before approaching the police.

Ravikumar Gupta (name changed), technician with a diamond polishing unit in Sakinaka , got a call on January 31 from a woman claiming to be from a “friendship club”. She told Gupta that they were looking for men who could entertain rich, bored housewives and earn Rs 18,000 per appointment.

Gupta fell for it hook, line and sinker, and kept making payments. The police managed to freeze the account where he transferred funds, including part of a loan taken to buy property. In a brazen retort, when the cops spoke to the fraudsters, they said they would refund Gupta’s money once the account is de-freezed.

Gupta convinced himself an additional income from woman clients will help pay the Rs 15,400 EMI against the Rs 5.6 lakh loan. “I was told that the club will arrange the meetings (with women clients) and I can earn a regular income,” Gupta told TOI. The police acted immediately after a written complaint from Gupta on February 1, but the FIR was registered on Monday.

After convincing Gupta, the caller asked him to pay Rs 2,000 as registration fee. “The woman asked me to attend a meeting, and sought another Rs 10,000 as meeting fee. Once these payments were made, she sent four photos of women and asked me to choose. She said I would get a call from the one I chose, but the meeting could not be in any place and asked me to book a hotel for which the client would compensate. So I deposited Rs 32,000 on her instruction. Later, the tele-caller said if I deposited Rs 36,000, the hotel room would be booked for the entire month and I will receive a gold card and cash reward points,” Gupta said.

On February 1, the tele-caller again got in touch with Gupta, and said he had to undergo a health check-up and the report had to be shown to the client before the appointment could take place. He was asked to deposit another Rs 46,000 and “told that a man will visit his address and conduct the check-up. He realised he had been duped when no one came till 5pm”, said the police.

A case under IPC sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (common intention) has been filed and the Sakinaka Cyber Cell is looking into the case, said DCP (zone X) Navinchandra Reddy.

