Ahmedabad: A 58-year-old managing director of based valve manufacturing company in Odhav lost Rs 75.6 lakh to cyberfraudsters who allegedly posed as representatives of two business-to-business (B2B) export marketing firms and lured him with promises of international purchase orders. The complaint was registered with Ahmedabad Cyber Crime police on Monday.According to the FIR, the businessman from Ghatlodia first received a call in Jan from a man identifying himself as Vikas Gupta, who claimed to represent a company called World’s Trade Growth. The caller allegedly offered to connect Indian manufacturers with foreign buyers through a digital B2B marketing platform, and emailed brochures, GST details and membership documents, convincing the complainant that the proposal was genuine.After paying an initial membership fee, the complainant was assigned a “profile handler” who introduced him to an overseas buyer. Police said the accused allegedly sent purchase orders and assured the businessman that the advance payment from the foreign client would be released after he obtained certification codes, EDI clearance and other export-related approvals.Believing the representations, the businessman transferred Rs 7.54 lakh in stages towards various certification and processing charges.While the first transaction was still underway, another woman identifying herself as an executive of a another company, 4TradeIndia, allegedly made a similar offer. She introduced another purported overseas buyer and again demanded payments for registration, certification, tax clearance and international compliance formalities. The complainant continued making payments after being repeatedly assured that the payments would be refunded after the export order was executed.Police said the fraudsters kept inventing new charges each time the businessman made a payment. The latter became suspicious only after he was asked to deposit an additional Rs 12.5 lakh for an EDI code. He later realised that neither company intended to process any export order or refund the money.Between Jan and July, the complainant allegedly transferred Rs 75,59,593 to multiple bank accounts. Despite repeated phone calls, WhatsApp messages and emails, he did not receive any refund. He then approached the cybercrime helpline before filing an FIR.Cyber Crime police have booked the unidentified accused for cheating, forgery and cyberfraud.
