Mangaluru: A man in Mangaluru was duped of Rs 58 lakh on the pretext of buying old coins, police said on Thursday. The victim has registered the case at Kavoor police station.
While browsing Facebook on November 25, 2024, a Mangaluru man saw an advertisement that offered to buy old coins after paying a high price. He then sent photos of 15 old coins to the WhatsApp number which was shown in the advertisement. Accordingly, the accused told him that he would buy 15 old coins and pay Rs 49,00,000 in return, the victim said in the complaint.
Later, the accused told the victim that if he wanted to sell the coins, he had to first pay Rs 750 for RBI registration. So the victim paid money through UPI. After that, the accused sent a message to the WhatsApp number asking for payment of Rs 17,500 as GST proceeding data fee, Rs 94,500 as insurance fee, Rs 49,499 as TDS fee, Rs 71,500 as GPS fee, Rs 39,990 as ITR fee and Rs 3,50,000 as RBI notice pending fee. so the victim transferred accordingly, the complaint stated.
Later, on December 15, 2024, a call was received on the victim's mobile number, from which the person introduced himself as Mumbai Cyber Police Commissioner Gaurav Shivaji Rao Shinde, the complaint stated.
According to the complaint, the person on the call told the victim that he would have a notice received from the RBI saying he would be arrested. "Therefore, as per the RBI guidelines, Rs 12,55,000 should be paid. Then we will check and transfer all the money to the account within one hour. Accordingly, the victim transferred the money to the bank account," it said.
The victim claimed that at that time, the unknown person started scolding him when he became suspicious and questioned him. "Similarly, from November 25 to December 30, 2024, a total of Rs 58,26,399 was transferred to their bank accounts step by step," he said and urged the Karnataka Police to take action against the people who cheated him.
