A pan-India online Ola electric scooter scam was busted by the cyber crime wing of the Delhi Police on Monday. The police nabbed 20 members of the gang from different parts of India, including cities like Gurugram, bengaluru and Patna.
The gang had defrauded over 1,000 individuals, who lost crores of rupees online thinking they were being sold electric scooters. An FIR was registered on October 8 under IPC Section 420 after which the police conducted a thorough investigation and uncovered the modus operandi of the scam.
Fake Ola scooter scam
Two individuals had created a fake Ola electric scooters website in Bengaluru and used to target victims searching for the scooter online. Such potential Ola scooter buyers then fell into the trap by sharing their details on the website. These details including mobile number of the targets was then shared by the person running the website with other members of the gange based in different states.
These persons then contacted the victims from Telangana and Bihar, asking them to pay Rs 499 online in the name of booking their Ola scooter. These unsuspecting individuals were then made to transfer Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000 for insurance and transportation charges.
The scam surfaced after the complaint of one victim who alleged that he had tried to book the Ola electric scooter from the Ola app on September 26 but was unable to complete the booking process. However, he received a call the next day from a person pretending to be an Ola representative.
The person described an offline booking process to the customer and made him pay Rs 499 via PayU app. The complainant received a fake booking confirmation receipt for the payment. He then received an email enlisting finance options and went with Ola money option on the suggestion of the scammer.
The victim paid an additional Rs 30,000 as down payment and the rest as EMIs. He was asked to pay an additional Rs 13,000 for delivery charge of the scooter. The police sprung into action after they received the complaint.
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(With inputs from ANI)
