Techie looking to buy bike over OLX duped of Rs 1.17 lakh by fake CISF man

BENGALURU: A software engineer, after choosing to buy a bike on OLX, struck a deal for Rs 45,000, but ended up paying Rs 1.17 lakh after a conman convinced him that extra charges for transport would be refunded later.

However, software engineer Chandrasekar Sahoo, 30, neither got the bike nor any refund. He was cheated by a conman who claimed to be a constable from Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Rahul Kumar, who had sourced a picture of a TVS Apache that he posted on OLX.This conman has cheated several others in different parts of the country.

Sahoo, a native of Odisha, had recently arrived in Bengaluru and was working with a private company. Seeking a two-wheeler, he scouted OLX, the online sale website and zeroed in on the TVS Apache bike.
He contacted the person who posted the picture. He claimed to be Rahul Kumar, a constable for CISF who was posted at the Kempegowda International Airport.

They struck a deal for  Rs 45,000, but Kumar informed Sahoo that the bike would be dispatched via military transport and he would have to collect it. “He asked me to pay for clearance from office,” Sahoo said.

A day later, Sahoo received a call from Jai Kishen, who claimed to be the driver of a military transport. He sent a bill and dispatch order, asking Sahoo to pay Rs 1.17 lakh.

“I checked with Kumar, and he asked me to pay it since it would be refundable. I paid Rs 1.17 lakh through PayTM for dispatch charges, RTR delivering confirmation and travel security,” he said.

When Kumar insisted that Sahoo pay an additional Rs 8,000 and asked for his PayTM number and password, Sahoo smelt a rat. Subsequently, Kumar’s and Kishan’s phones were switched off after the latter too refused to deliver the bike if the payment was not made.

After Sahoo filed a complaint with Marathahalli police, an investigating officer said Kumar had collected the photo of a bike registered in the name of Rahul Kumar, the real owner of the bike. He had created a fake ID of CISF.

The investigating officer said, “It is an organised gang. They post fake ads on sale portals and loot gullible people. When we checked Rahul Kumar’s ID card on Google, we found many people from different states had complained against him. We have taken up the case of cheating.”