Lucknow: Conmen with army ID dupe car buyers online

LUCKNOW: Two more city residents have been swindled out of their hard-earned money on different e-commerce websites through ads purportedly posted by people posing as army officers.
The recent incidents, which came to the fore on Saturday, have taken the number of victims to 15 since January 1 this year.
Alambagh resident Mahim Pal told police that he lost Rs 1 lakh while trying to purchase a car through a buy-sell site. "The deal was struck on April 20 with one Atul Thakur who said he was a captain in the Indian Army and posted in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. I deposited the amount the next day. The advertisement (on the website) vanished after that and the contact person stopped responding to my calls," Pal said.
The ordeal of Mubeen Ahmad has been similar. The Rajajipuram resident was conned into paying Rs 1.5 lakh on April 21 for a car he never got delivered. Ahmad was asked to pay Rs 50,000 for a test drive by one Deenanath Pandey who introduced himself as a JCO of Punjab Regiment posted in Jammu and Kashmir.
"I made the payment on April 22, but was asked to give another Rs 1 lakh the next day. I was told the car would be delivered to my address. However, the advertisement was withdrawn and the phone number provided was found switched off," Ahmad said.
Nodal officer of cyber cell Abhay Mishra said preliminary probe had indicated that conmen had uploaded copies of their ID cards and Aadhaar, besides other documents, to run ads on the websites. "We have asked military intelligence to check if the IDs are genuine," he added.