Bhubaneswar: A day after Twin City Police Commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi on Tuesday revealed that citizens across Odisha had lost over Rs 1.4 crore to various cyber frauds in just one month, a lecturer in the Capital City was duped of Rs 19,000 in an online fraud on Wednesday.
The victim has been identified as Reshma Mohapatra, who is working as a lecturer in a private college in Bhubaneswar.
In her complaint to the police Mohapatra has alleged that she lost the money from her husband’s google account to what is widely called as OLX on-line fraud.
According to reports, Reshma had posted an advertisement on online marketplace OLX to sell an old washing machine. The fraudster called her and managed to gain her trust by claiming that he wanted to buy the item. The accused then allegedly asked her to scan a QR code following which he sent a small amount of Rs 5 to her account, ostensibly to win her trust.
“After I received the amount, the fraudster sent another QR code, and asked me to scan it to receive Rs 9,500. However, when I scanned the code, a sum of Rs 9,500 got debited from my account,” said Reshma.
“When I questioned the man about it, he said it happened because a wrong QR code had been sent mistakenly. He then sent another code and asked me to follow the same procedure to receive the money. However, this time I lost Rs 9,500 again. In this way, the scammer duped me of Rs 19,000 in two back to back transactions,” she said.
Reshma filed a complaint in the Infocity police station following the incident. She has also sought help from Cyber help desk.
The police have registered a case of cheating and launched an investigation into the incident.