BENGALURU: An unidentified man posing as a prospective bike buyer sped away with a high-end bike on the pretext of a test ride. The incident took place on Monday.
According to police, a person named Naveen had posted an advertisement on OLX.com- a free online classified portal to sell his bike. Since he had incurred a huge loss in business, he wanted to repay the loans by selling his bike.
A man contacted him and showed interest in buying it. Both fixed a schedule on Monday to meet in Marathahalli. On meeting, the buyer requested for the xerox copies of vehicle documents and also a test ride. Unsuspecting Naveen handed over the bike to him along with the documents. The man took the bike and went away. When he did not return for long, Naveen himself went in search for him, but in vain. Subsequently, he lodged a complaint with Marathahalli police. A case has been registered and the investigation is on.
Two held for cheating customers on OLX
In another case, cyber crime police on Wednesday arrested two persons who were involved in cheating people on the OLX. The accused have been identified as Augustine, a native of Nigeria and Jagadeesh Kumar.
Augustine (42), residing in Virgo Nagar, Bidarahalli used to post classifieds on Olx.com as a car seller. He would later ask the interested customers to transfer some amount to his account on one pretext or the another. Later, he would vanish. Jagadeesh Kumar would provide him sim cards without any documents. He worked at a mobile shop.
FRAUD VIA OLX: PAST INCIDENTS
July 2016: Koramangala police arrested a job consultant Ayyappa and his associate Saleem for targeting sellers of high-end bikes on OLX. They would escape with the bikes after diverting their attention.
May 2016: In three separate cases, people were cheated on OLX on the pretext of providing house maids.
April 2017: HAL police arrested three persons who were allegedly stealing laptops from PGs and selling them on OLX.
Police were able to crack 50 cases with the arrests.