PUNE: The Kharadi police on Tuesday registered a case against cybercrooks for duping a software engineer (45) of Rs 37.5 lakh on the promise of providing him a franchise of a prominent fashion-retail chain in Feb.The fraudsters took money under the guise of providing a non-objection certificate (NoC) and deposit. When the victim did not get any franchise, he approached the Pune cybercrime police and filed a complaint application.Senior police inspector and investigating officer Sanjay Chavan of Kharadi police said the techie wanted to purchase the franchise of a popular fashion retail chain. He searched for the franchise on the internet and posted the details about his space, where he wanted to start the franchise, Chavan said.He received a call from a man who claimed to be calling from the company’s head office in Mumbai, he said, adding that the caller told the victim that the company sent him an email about the franchise and requested him to go through it.“The techie found that the email came from the company’s email address. The email stated that the company approved the techie’s space for the franchise and the details of the charges,” he said.The officer said the techie was told to pay an initial deposit of Rs 2.65 lakh, Rs 10 lakh for NoC, Rs 15 lakh for stock booking and Rs 10 lakh as a refundable deposit. He was told to transfer the amount to the given bank account number/s. “The techie transferred Rs 37.5 lakh to the bank account numbers between Feb 13 and 26,” the officer said.He said the accused then contacted the victim and told him that the company’s team would soon be visiting the site for inspection. When the team did not come, the victim contacted them, but there was no response.He then rechecked the company’s email address and found that he was duped as the company’s email was different. “We have sought the details of the transactions from the victim’s bank. Our investigations are on,” he said.
