Lucknow: A businessman from Lucknow was allegedly cheated of over Rs1.01 crore by cyber fraudsters who promised him a dealership with a car company in eastern UP. An FIR was registered on Tuesday.Inspector in-charge of the cyber police station, Brijesh Kumar Yadav said that a case was registered and an investigation is underway. Police are working to identify the accused and track the bank accounts involved in the transactions. The scam involved forged documents, fake email IDs, and impersonation of senior officials from a reputed automobile company. The victim, Ravitosh Asthana, vice president at CS Infra Construction and a resident of Vikalp Khand-5, applied for a dealership in Rasra, Ballia around two months ago. He found contact information through a Google search and submitted his application on a website he believed to be genuine. On May 15, he received an email from someone posing as a CRM officer, seeking official documents. Asthana complied, sending over all requested materials. On June 6, a man identifying himself as Vinod Jain, an officer in the dealer development cell, sent him a contract letter.Over time, Asthana was asked to pay various charges, eventually transferring Rs1.01 crore across multiple transactions. The fraudsters later sent another forged letter, this time carrying the name and signature of the company’s global CEO, to further convince him of the deal’s legitimacy.The deception unravelled on June 23 when the fraudsters demanded an additional Rs1.62 crore. Asthana revisited the company’s official website and discovered he was in contact with imposters.
