Thane: Tax consultant loses Rs 11 lakh in online task fraud

A 50yearold tax consultant from Maharashtras Thane district lost more than Rs 11 lakh in a task fraud wherein three cyber fraudsters including two women duped him under the pretext of providing parttime online jobs police said reported news agency PTIBased on the complaint lodged by the victim a resident of Rambaug area of Kalyan a case was registered at the Mahatma Phule Chowk police station under provisions of the Information Technology IT Act they said reported PTIThe accused were identified as Priya Sharma Devi and Bharat While Priya posed as a representative of an international advertisement company and called the victim from an overseas number the other two contacted him through a social messaging application an official said reported PTIOn December 11 the trio offered money for completing certain online tasks of giving positive reviews Initially they paid a few hundred rupees to him and later asked him to join some groups on Telegram app They asked him to pay Rs 1131200 assuring him of good returns he said reported PTIHowever when he sought returns from them they started giving evasive replies He realised that he has been duped following which he approached the police and filed the complaint he said reported PTIIn another case police have registered a case against seven persons including a couple for allegedly duping a 39yearold man working as a driver at Dombivli in Maharashtras Thane district of Rs 3478 lakh on false promises an official said on Saturday reported PTINone of the accused has been arrested yet he said reported PTIThe accused assured to provide flats to the victim and his sister in a slum rehabilitation scheme of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA and also promised to give a job to his nephew in the railways an official of Kolsewadi police station in Kalyan said reported PTIThe accused who include a woman and a couple collected a total of Rs 3478818 from the victim between January 2019 and 2021 he said reported PTIBut despite paying the money the victim neither got the flats nor was his nephew given a job the police official said reported PTIBased on his complaint the police filed the first information report FIR under Indian Penal Code IPC sections 420 cheating 406 criminal breach of trust and 34 common intention against Jaideep Londhe Shital Salvi her husband Karan Salvi Vijay Tupe and others at the Kolsewadi police station on Wednesday reported PTIWith inputs from PTI