Lure of cheap plywood, trader loses Rs 3 lakhs

Cyber police recovers money by freezing account

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A businessman from Satara area lost Rs 3 lakhs in a plywood scam on social media, where he was promised wholesale prices for plywood materials. Trader Shailesh Kumar Patel contacted the seller, who asked for an advance payment for an online order. After depositing the money, Patel did not receive the materials and realized he was scammed. He immediately filed a complaint with the cyber police.

The police team, consisting of cyber inspector Pravina Yadav, PSI Rahul Chavan and team members launched an investigation and found that the account where Patel's money was deposited belonged to a private bank in Tamil Nadu. However, due to the account being in another state, the police faced difficulties in freezing the account. They contacted nodal officers of the bank and even sent an e-mail to the Kanyakumari branch at a senior level to provide all legal information. Finally, after ten days of continuous efforts, the bank froze the account, which had Rs 28 lakhs deposited by the accused. The cyber police were successful in recovering Patel's Rs 3 lakhs, which was returned to him by the bank on Thursday.