The official was trying to order wine online through “Living Liquidz shop” in Mumbai

New Delhi, December 8

A senior SEBI official who wanted to buy wine online fell prey to a cyber-fraud who extracted Rs 1.43 lakhs in a fraud. 

The incident took place on December 2 when the complainant found the number of “Living Liquidz" online and tried to place a home delivery order. 

The accused was identified as Pankaj Sharma who runs the shop. 

The police said that Sharma asked the officer for an advanced payment but she refused saying they never ask for money in advance. However, the accused tricked her by claiming that the online payment option was not functional and took her credit card number.  

According to the police, she agreed to pay Rs 9,500 but the delivery was not made. When she questioned him, Sharma allegedly said there was an error and he did not receive the money. As she was speaking with him on the phone Rs 62,000 got debited from her account, according to her complaint. She questioned him about it on which the fraudster and Sharma allegedly said he will reverse the transaction as it got debited.

He allegedly generated another OTP which was received by the complainant on her mobile phone. She shared it again with him thinking it was for reversing the transaction but another Rs 61,000 got debited from her account. The complainant confronted him again, to which he said there was some issue with her credit card and asked her if she has another credit card.

The complainant gave him details of another credit card when another Rs 20,200 got debited from her account when she again shared the OTP with him. 

When this was not all, the woman having seen that lot of money was taken from her even put the accused on a conference call with her bank. Her bank informed her that there is no provision at to give OTP for reversing a transaction while the accused abruptly left the call. 

Having understood, she has been cheated, she filed a complaint with the Sakinaka police station. 

The police are now trying to arrest the accused whose numbers are now inaccessible. The police added that the accused had both her credit card numbers which have been advised to be blocked till investigation is underway. The police suspect that the shop and the owner have conned more persons similarly.