Port Blair Resident Falls Victim to Online Scooter Purchase Scam, Loses ₹94,497

Tarun Karthick

Port Blair, 08 April 2024

A resident of Calicut, Port Blair has filed a complaint with the Superintendent of Police, CID Unit, Port Blair, regarding a financial fraud he fell victim to, involving the purchase of a second-hand scooter advertised on Facebook.

In his written complaint, the victim, narrates how he encountered an advertisement for the sale of a second-hand scooter on Facebook’s marketplace. The advertisement claimed the scooter was located at Diglipur Airforce Station, N & M Andaman. Intrigued by the offer, the victim contacted the seller using the provided phone number and initiated communication via WhatsApp.

The seller shared images of the scooter and requested the victim to send his Aadhar card for verification purposes. Subsequently, the seller provided what turned out to be fake documents for the scooter and instructed the victim to make an initial payment of Rs. 2500/- through UPI for booking. Believing the transaction to be genuine, the victim complied.

The fraudulent transactions escalated as the seller demanded further payments for shipping and tracking charges. The victim, following the instructions, sent amounts totalling Rs. 94,497/- through multiple UPI transactions. It was only after several demands for additional funds that the victim realised he had fallen victim to a scam.

Feeling deceived and defrauded, the victim filed a formal complaint on National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP).