VIJAYAWADA: At a time when the entire nation is in the grip of the invisible enemy, COVID-19, cybercriminals are taking advantage of the situation to dupe public in all possible ways. This time, fraudsters have seized the opportunity by promising door delivery of order for alcoholics during the lockdown.
In this case, one private employee Ujwal (name changed) lost Rs 33,000 to fraudsters in a similar way. With his employer asking him to work from home due to unprecedented lockdown, Ujwal has remained at home since March 21 and ran out of liquor stock at his house. While surfing Facebook, he came across a post posted by an unknown person using the name of well-known wine shops claiming that they are offering home delivery.
Not checking the veracity of the post, he contacted the person from the phone number mentioned in the post and paid Rs 33,000. “Ujwal paid the amount for liquor bottles through a QR code. Later, when the accused stopped picking calls, he realised that he was cheated and approached the police. We somehow managed to recover Rs 30,000 from the account of the accused and found that the accused was operating from Rajasthan,” said cybercrime police inspector K Shivaji.
So far, Vijayawada cybercrime police have received two such complaints. “There is no such facility as door delivery of liquor during this lockdown. All the wine shops are closed and the State excise policy doesn’t allow door delivery,” Shivaji said.