In a shocking case of cyber fraud, a retired man from Mangaluru was scammed out of Rs 58 lac after being promised a fortune for his collection of rare old coins.
The victim, who had retired and settled in Katipalla near Surathkal after working abroad, owned 15 valuable coins. He was lured by a Facebook ad claiming his coins could be worth millions.
The scammers first reached out to the victim via WhatsApp, offering him Rs 49 lac for the coins. They tricked him into making a payment of Rs 750 for RBI registration. Following this, they convinced him to pay fake fees, including Rs 3.5 lac for RBI fees, GST, and IT returns.
The fraudsters, pretending to be Gaurav Shivaji Rao Shinde, the Cyber Police Commissioner of Mumbai, escalated the scam by threatening the victim with arrest. They demanded an additional Rs 12.55 lac to prevent legal action, promising that the full amount would be refunded within an hour.
Ultimately, the scammers managed to transfer Rs 58,26,399 from the victim’s account. Realizing the deception, the victim filed a complaint at the Mangaluru CEN police station. An investigation is now underway.
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