Andhra man loses Rs 16 lakh to fake kidney selling racket, case registered

The man had given his cellphone to his daughter for online classes who was cheated by cyber scamsters on the pretext of offering her Rs 7 crore for her kidney.

Guntur: Cyber fraudsters have withdrawn Rs 16 lakh from the bank account of a man from Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district through fraud online links on his phone used by his daughter. Police have registered a case and handed over the case to the Cyber Police. The action came on the complaint by the girl's father whose daughter had run away from home and taken shelter at her friend's house after she realized that she had been cheated of the said money, SP Guntur Arif Hafeez said on Monday.

While divulging the details, the SP said that the victim, an Inter student from Phirangipuram in Guntur district, is pursuing nursing in Hyderabad. The girl told the police that her father gave her his cellphone to attend online classes. She said she spent Rs 80,000 to buy clothes and watches without her father's knowledge using her father's bank account linked through an app.

In a desperate bid to deposit the money back into her father's account, the girl approached her friends who said she could earn quick money by selling her kidney. She searched on the internet with one website offering her Rs.7 crores for the organ. From the contact numbers on the website, she contacted a purported doctor named Praveenraj who offered her Rs 3.50 crore as the first installment and the remaining money after the operation.

The girl said she agreed and underwent the medical tests he suggested and mailed the details along with her father's account number for the money. The girl said that Praveenraj sent her a screenshot claiming to have deposited Rs 3.50 crores. However she grew suspicious as the money was not reflected in the transaction.

“When I asked about it, he said to convert dollars into Indian currency, I have to pay tax and deposit Rs 15,000 to his bank account. He took Rs 16 lakh from March to October with such tricks. On one occasion, he deposited Rs 10,000 in my father's account to win my trust,” the girl said. The girl said the fraudster even asked her to come to Delhi, but did not pick up the phone when she went there.

As the fraudster asked for another Rs 1.50 lakh, the girl realised her situation and ran away from home fearing the consequences when her father finds out about it. Her father lodged a missing complaint with the police, who found her at a friend's house in Kanchikacharla of the NTR district and handed her over to her father.

The girl later revealed the entire scam to the police. SP Arif Hafeez said a case has been registered. He advised public not to click on unnecessary links on the websites and recommended the use of 'Cyber Kavach' app developed by the police department.