Businessman cheated of Rs 12L in herbal seeds racket

NOIDA: A businessman has filed a complaint with the cyber cell of Noida police alleging that he was duped of Rs 12 lakh in a herbal seeds racket which promised high returns. The complainant, Ramesh Singh, is a resident of Sector 27 and has an import-export business operating from Delhi.

In his complaint, Singh said he received an email from a person named Jacob Herry in the first week of August. Herry identified himself as purchasing manager of a UK-based firm, Ozomedicherb, and said he was looking for a local business partner to supply herbal seeds to the firm. Lured by the idea of high returns, Singh agreed to export the seeds to him.

Herry suggested that he buy the seeds from an Odisha-based trader, Wepang Moren. Singh contacted Moren and got photos of herbal seeds samples on email, which he forwarded to Herry for approval. Herry told him to to buy ten packages of 100 gram each.

Singh bought seven packages for Rs 12 lakh from Moren, and made online payment.

However, Herry told him he wanted a total of 220 packages, that would cost him around Rs 50 lakh. He said he would pay him Rs 6 crore for the shipment.

When Singh refused such a huge purchase as he didn't have enough money, Herry and Moren refused to receive his call or respond to emails. Realising that he had been duped, Singh filed a complaint with Centre for Cyber Crime Investigation.

Inspector Vivek Ranjan Rai, CCCI, said preliminary probe indicated that an orgnised gang is running this racket. "The email ID and website used in this case were fake. We are trying to trace the accused's location through their IP addresses," he said.