The scammers are selecting new routes to theft money using the online base and cases of innocent victims, who lost money to these scammers are rising.
A chartered accountant in Bengaluru tried to sell his kidney to clear the financial debts and ended up losing Rs. 6.2 lakh to the scammers. He filed a complaint to the Central CEN Crime Police on February 28.
Raghuvaran (name changed) a 46-year-old chartered accountant searched online for people who were looking for a kidney donor. During his search, he found a website -https://kidneysuperspecialist.org. He also found a contact number (9631688773) and called that number. The person who received the Raghuvaran call told him to text through WhatsApp and asked him to share basic details such as his name, address, age, and blood group. When Raghuvaran shared the information that his blood group is AB-negative, then the scammer told him that he would get Rs. 2 crore for his kidney and half of the payment would be paid in advance.Raghuvaran shared his ID proofs like his Aadhaar and PAN card with a photograph to an email address - doctordineshkullar@gmail.com.
Raghuvaran said that initially, they asked him to pay Rs. 8,000 for NOC and registration fee and after that they asked him to pay Rs. 20,000 to buy a code. On the next day to operate the code they asked him to pay Rs. 85,000.
The scammers further asked him to pay Rs. 5 lakh for tax clearance to transfer funds to his account. He followed the instructions and paid the amount on March 2. Raghuvaran suspected something was wrong when he received a call from a woman posing as an employee of the State Bank of India (SBI) and asking him to pay Rs. 7.6 lakh to get anti-drug and terrorist clearance forms. But this time he didn't send the money. He called his boss and friends.
Reghuvaran said the scammers sent him a form by email. He contacted his boss and a few friends. His boss informed him it was a scam and advised him to lodge a police complaint.
Raghuvaran said that he wished to pay his car’s EMI, close his credit cards, and figure out other financial problems. He also said he did not know that selling kidneys to strangers for money is illegal.
Under the Information Technology Act (IT) and section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing the delivery of property) of IPC a case has been filed. The scammer's bank accounts were also freezed. A police officer said that they suspect that the fraudsters have cheated many others similarly.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina/MSM)
