Rajkot cops find new modus operandi of online cheating

Rajkot: A relatively new modus operandi of cheating people using social media was unravelled by the cyber cell of Rajkot police wherein a businessman was fleeced of Rs 2.6 lakh by five people.
The victim, Hiresh Kishore, who runs an export business, often used social media like Facebook to post messages to get export orders. In April, he saw a post on his Facebook regarding some inquiry. On responding to the message, he got a message on his Whatsapp from Sai Ceramics in Morbi and Kishore evinced interest in exporting tiles.
When he called the number given, a person named Brajesh Nimavat told him that he was abroad and asked him to speak with his partner Vivek on April 22. Vivek told him that they wanted to export tiles worth Rs 5 lakh and set the terms of payment as 50% advance and the remaining when the goods were picked up.
Kishore then paid Rs 2.60 lakh through RTGS in the bank account provided by him. However, when he and his partner went to Sai Ceramic in Morbi, the firm’s owner Vijay Patel said he had neither placed any such order nor knew any persons by the names of Brajesh or Vivek.
Realizing that he was cheated, Kishore gave an application to the cyber cell.
Investigation revealed that the money had been transferred into the account of one Jayesh Agrawat, who kept his commission of Rs 10,000 and gave the remaining Rs 2.5 lakh to a person named Dinesh who also took as much commission. Dinesh then gave Rs 2.4 lakh to a man named Dipak Vanani who sent Rs 1.40 lakh through courier to Surat and Rs 1 lakh to Goa.
“We have lodged an offence against the five persons whose names cropped up during the investigation. But we are still not sure who is the mastermind behind this racket. It looks like a new modus operandi of cyber fraud,” said J M Vaghela, police inspector, cyber cell.