A 78-year-old man was defrauded out of Rs 8.5 lakh after being deceived with the promise of receiving Rs 9 lakh in return for a five-rupee coin featuring an image of Vaishno Devi. The police have filed a case under the Information Technology Act against an unidentified person following the complaint.
The complainant lives in Mahim with his elderly sister and has a hobby of collecting old coins. On June 26, they saw an advertisement on Facebook from a person named Sanjeev Kumar. The ad featured a five-rupee coin with an image of Vaishno Devi, claiming that one could receive Rs 9 lakh in exchange for the coin. They contacted Sanjeev Kumar on his mobile phone, and he reiterated that the coin would fetch Rs 9 lakh. A few days after the complainant agreed to buy and resell the coin, Sanjeev Kumar asked for their Aadhaar card and photo. He then asked them to send some amount for GST registration.
The process didn't stop there. The accused sent various documents to the complainant, such as a transfer agreement, sales tax, return filing, registration certificate, GPS, TDS, and insurance. The complainant was asked to make payments to different bank accounts for all these documents. Over time, the complainant deposited a total of Rs 8.58 lakh into various bank accounts. Despite sending this amount, Sanjeev Kumar did not send the five-rupee coin with the image of Vaishno Devi.
The accused forced the complainant to deposit Rs 8.58 lakh into various bank accounts by falsely promising to give the coin with Vaishno Devi's image for Rs 9 lakh. Upon realizing the scam, the elderly man informed the Mahim police station. Following their complaint, the police have registered a case against an unknown person under the charges of fraud and the Information Technology Act. The complainant has provided the police with details of the deposited amount, and an investigation has begun based on this information.