Bengaluru
A 37-year-old businessman in Bengaluru lost ₹56 lakh to a deal concocted by cyber criminals claiming to be based in the United Kingdom (U.K.). An FIR was registered at South East CEN police station.
About two months ago, a person claiming to be Johnson contacted the businessman with a request to purchase and export a herbal extract, used by pharmaceutical companies to manufacture drugs used for cancer treatment, from a company based in India.
Johnson claimed to be calling from the U.K. He shared the contact number of a person, identified as Nikitha Kumar, associated with an Indian company.
The businessman initially declined the offer telling Johnson to deal directly with the Indian company. Johnson explained that dealing directly would make the product expensive for him and claimed that each litre of the extract costs ₹1,00,450. Johnson offered a good profit margin to supply 250 litres.
Later, another man identified as Edward called the businessman. Both the men spoke with a U.K. accent, said the businessman. The duo shared the link of their company website, which led the businessman to believe that they were genuine customers.
Edward mailed a London-to-Delhi ticket bearing the name of a person, and told the businessman that a representative of the company would be arriving to test the samples. The businessman contacted Nikitha and asked her to send a 1-litre sample. The woman sent a sample to Bengaluru for which the businessman paid ₹1 lakh.
As the businessman was in Andhra Pradesh and he had to fly to Delhi from there, he requested Nikitha to send another sample to a Delhi address, for which he made another payment.
The businessman met the U.K. firm representative at a private hotel in Delhi. After testing the sample, the representative gave his approval and placed an order for 250 litres. The businessman called Nikitha to place the order for 60 litres, for which he paid an advance of over ₹30 lakh.
“I told Edward that I can supply only 60 litres, as he did not have the money to place an order for 250 litres. After negotiations, Edward settled for 100 litres,” the businessman told The Hindu.
Later, he contacted Nikitha to place an order for another 40 litres, for which she demanded an advance. The businessman paid the money. In total, he ended up paying ₹56 lakh.
When the product was not delivered as promised, he called Nikitha, Edward, Johnson, and the company representative, but all their mobile phones were switched off. He filed a complaint on July 28.
