Thane: Software engineer loses Rs 2.2 lakh in online scam

A software engineer lost Rs 2.23 lakh to internet scammers after booking a taxi to Nashik online, but timely intervention saved him Rs 71,000.

According to a police officer, the complainant wanted to go to Nashik last year, so he checked with a travel agent and booked through the website.

A moment later, he got a call from Rajat, who identified himself as an employee of the agency. He asked that the victim pay Rs 100 on the travel agency's website and that the remainder be paid after the trip.

“The caller informed that there was a technical hitch on their website which he would check and revert. Again the victim tried to make the payment of Rs 100 through the website that also failed and left it as it is,” the police said.

"At midnight, he received a message in his mobile that a sum of Rs 81,400, Rs 71,085, and Rs 1.42 lakh had been debited from credit card accounts. Immediately upon realising that there was something wrong he contacted the customer care of the banks and asked them to block the credit cards," the complaint with the police said.

Fortunately, Rs 71,085 was credited back to his account, but the two amounts debited remained unchanged, resulting in a total loss of Rs 2.2 lakh in the cyber fraud.

"Local police are probing into the crime and no arrest has been made in this connection so far," the police said.

An offence under section cheating of the Indian penal code and relevant sections of the information technology act.