Tarun Karthick
Port Blair, 11 February 2023
On 9th of December 2022, a resident of Shadipur, Port Blair, saw a post on Facebook by a person regarding the sale of some household items like furniture. He called the given number, and the person on the other end of the line introduced himself as Lakshmi Narayan of CISF. Laxmi Narayan informed him that he is on transfer from Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Delhi and wants to sell the household items urgently.
The resident of Shadipur felt that Laxmi Narayan was genuine and showed interest in buying his household goods. Laxmi Narayan then sent pictures of the goods along with the price of the items on his WhatsApp Number.
Laxmi Narayan then asked for an advance of Rs. 8000/-, which the Shadipur Resident paid to him through Google Pay. Laxmi Narayan then asked for multiple amounts like Rs. 3000/-, Rs. 4000/-, Rs. 12,400/-, Rs. 20,600/-, Rs. 27,400/-, Rs. 34,000/- in total Rs. 1,14,000/-, which the Shadipur resident paid to him.
Laxmi Narayan assured him that he would transport the items to his home in Shadipur on the same day, but the household goods never arrived.
Later, the Shadipur resident shared the instance with his friends and family and learned that he had fallen prey to online fraud.
He approached the Cyber Crime Cell of Andaman and Nicobar Police and Police Station Aberdeen and registered an FIR against the cyber fraudster.
Nicobar Times has a detailed story on its Youtube Channel explaining how Cyber Fraudsters in the name of CISF officers and Army Officers loot people.