BENGALURU: A 56-year-old owner of a commercial complex in Fraser Town was duped of over Rs 2 lakh by multiple callers posing as representatives of a reputed telecom service provider who wanted to hire his place. After transferring money online to them in three instalments, Asadullah Shariff realised he had been duped and has now filed a complaint with the cyber crime police. Shariff had kept aside a huge chunk of that money for wedding of his older daughter.
The whole episode began with an innocuous message sent to her stating that a portion of his building was required on a rental basis in connection with installation of a mobile tower, Sharif told The New Indian Express. He immediately followed up the message, specified Rs 30 lakh as the annual rent, and asked them to send documents about the company.
He later received documents, which were forged from an established US-based firm. The caller, who identified himself as Sathish Kumar, also asked him to furnish exact address of the complex.
“I was also sent documents said to be from TRAI citing the space had been approved. It was the meticulously forged documents with the ‘Satyameva Jayate’ symbol above and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in bold below that fooled me totally,” he said.
The document also said the complex owner had to send across Rs 10,000 as deposit to the Information and Technology department. The fake caller representing Tri State Tower told him to send across Rs 5,000 only. Shariff did it online to an account provided and a cash receipt was immediately sent. The caller next sent another document from TRAI asking for Rs 48,630 to provide a No Objection Certificate.
“He assured me the amount would be reimbursed shortly and so I transferred the money online and got the receipt promptly,” he said.
“Finally, they told me since the sum of Rs 30 lakh had to be sent as a cheque from a different state, I had to pay Rs 1, 55,000 for TDS (tax deduction at source). I sent across this money too on March 6,” he said.
“It was only when they asked for another Rs 3 lakh to pay as bribe to TRAI officials, that I smelt something fishy. The phone numbers have been switched off since then. I approached the cyber crime police station and filed a complaint on March 7,” he added.
Shariff alleged that cyber crime staff were not very responsive. However, when contacted, a top cyber crime official said, “It is an inter-state racket. Much cross-verification needs to be done. It takes some time. We are doing our best to track the culprits.”