Lucknow: Conmen posing as Army men dupe man of Rs 38,000

LUCKNOW: With the lockdown ending, gangs posing as Army men have become active on buy-and-sell websites again.
Indiranagar resident Abhishek Verma is their latest victim. He was defrauded of Rs 38,000 in the name of a bike deal. Verma has lodged a case in this connection.
Verma told police that he had contacted a number after going through an advertisement on the online shopping site.
“The man who attended the call introduced himself as an Army officer and later finalised the deal at Rs 21,000,” Verma said in his complaint, adding that he had made the payment.
“A little later, I was asked to send Rs 4,250 as advance payment so that the seller could send the bike to me through courier,” he added.
Verma made the payment when he received a call from a man named Abhishek who asked him to transfer Rs 5,000 in a bank account which belonged to the bike seller. Verma again transferred the cash and informed the seller. The seller then asked for Rs 8,000 as security.
“Verma was promised that he will be given back the excess money but he neither got the bike nor the money,” the police said.
Assistant commissioner of police, cybercell, Vivek Ranjan Rai said that for many years cases have been reported in which innocents have been duped by scamsters posing as armymen.
“We are compiling such cases and working on them. After lockdown ended, they have again become active,” said the officer.