BENGALURU: A 60-year-old freelance pharmaceutical consultant was cheated by online fraudsters to the tune of over Rs 60 lakh. The conmen lured him with a commission of Rs16.5 crore of $30 million turnover, estimated to be Rs 210 crore, and cheated the victim.
Shivakumar Kunchithapatham filed a complaint with Whitefield police, who registered an FIR. The alleged fraud took place from October 17 to November 11. The complainant has stated that he advertised his business online and received an email on October 17 in which the sender introduced himself as Kiyoshi Mizuguchi, Executive Director, Mochida Pharmaceutical Co, a Japan-based company. He claimed that the firm would start a new office in Bengaluru and was interested in appointing Shivakumar as its head.
The sender also proposed that the firm required raw materials, including tamovite minerals which could be procured from Magro Mining Enterprises in West Bengal. He said the firm would share a commission of 7% of its $30 million turnover, which came to approximately Rs 16.5 crore. Following this, the complainant contacted one Ruchika Singh, who claimed to be the sales manager of Magro, the police said.
“The so-called sales manager said that one sample pack costs Rs 2.10 lakh and five packets would cost Rs 10.50 lakh. The money was transferred to the bank account given by her. Later, the person who claimed to be Mizuguchi contacted me again and said his delegates will come and test the samples, but the company needs at least 10,000 samples. I placed an order and paid an advance of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 8.67 lakh to obtain licence, as told by the sales manager,” the victim stated in the complaint. Again, the person contacted Shivakumar and told him that the US had released funds to procure the raw materials and a person called Andrews would meet him in Dubai.
Shivakumar went to Dubai on October 27 and met Rex, who claimed to be a representative of Andrews. “Rex opened a suitcase in which US currency was stored and said that if the money had to be transferred to my account, I need to pay Rs 35.50 lakh. Growing suspicious, I returned to Bengaluru. On November 7, I received a mail from email ID americaembassy001@usa.com that stated that if the fees was not paid, the released funds would be withdrawn. I transferred the amount to various Indian bank accounts provided by the accused. After that, the accused switched off their phones and went incommunicado,” he stated.