Hyderabad: A 76-year-old man was duped by cyber criminals impersonating BSF personnel while he was trying to sell his daughter’s property in Kolkata. Seeing an ad posted by the man, the criminals contacted him, expressing interest in the property. In the process of initiating payment for the property, they siphoned 1.8 lakh from his account.
According to police, the Nallagandla resident — a retiree from a central govt firm who was the head of the management wing — was trying to sell his daughter’s property. After he posted an ad on the platform, he received a WhatsApp message from a person identified as Ashok Kumar, claiming to work in the BSF.
He expressed interest in buying the property and also shared his purported BSF identity proofs, PAN, Aadhaar card, and canteen card via video call, claiming he wanted to finalise the purchase immediately.
Police said the fraudster informed the complainant that as per BSF policy, he would deposit a token advance of 4 lakh. “Later, another person claiming to be from the BSF accounts department called up the complainant to verify the bank details and told him that all payments would be processed via a reverse payment mechanism through UPI. He was also asked to make a trial transaction of Re1 Paytm, and the same was refunded immediately,” said a police official.
The complainant transferred 90,000, but he did not get the money back. The fraudster said the repayment was delayed due to a technical issue and convinced him to make another 90,000 payment, but he did not get this amount back. Citing technical issues, when the fraudsters asked him to transfer 90,000 more, the complainant smelt something fishy and declined. He blocked all his bank accounts and UPI accounts and lodged a complaint with the police.
“People should be careful when somebody is willing to buy property without seeing it,” added the official. The cybercrime wing of Cyberabad police have registered a case.
