A Gurgaon man was cheated of Rs 27 lakh under the pretext of buying a BMW car, the police said.
According to officials, Shreshth Sharma (43), a resident of DLF Phase 4, said that he was contacted by a man named Deepak regarding a car he was selling. Sharma said that the accused promised to sell him a BMW as well as a Fortuner for Rs 27.5 lakh and asked him to deposit it in an account number he had provided.
“He provided an address for his office which is also associated with his Instagram handle — Luxury cars.io. Upon checking the location, I did not find any such office,” he said.
Sharma was later asked to check a new BMW X5 of Rs 80 lakh from BMW’s Mohan Co-operative on Mathura Road on December 3 where a person named Prashant showed him the car.
“Later, Prashant even spoke to me over the phone. Rs 27.5 lakh was deposited, and neither the car has been delivered nor is he returning the money. Whenever I call Deepak, he threatens and intimidates me. I deposited the money between October 23 and December 6,” Sharma informed.
An FIR was registered under IPC Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) at DLF police station on Tuesday.
The police said they are investigating the matter. “We have identified the suspects as the complainant has given their contact numbers. The probe is underway,” an officer in know of the matter said.
According to the latest NCRB report ‘Crime in India’, 65,893 cases were registered under cybercrime, showing an increase of 24.4 per cent compared to 52,974 cases in 2021. “Crime rate (per lakh population) under this category has increased from 3.9 in 2021 to 4.8 in 2022. During 2022, 64.8 per cent of cybercrime cases registered were for the motive of fraud – 42,710 out of 65,893 cases – followed by extortion with 5.5 per cent – 3,648 cases – and sexual exploitation with 5.2 per cent – 3,434 cases,” it said.