A 36-year-old woman running a cashew trading business in Bengaluru was cheated of Rs 6.6 lakh by fraudsters who lured her with a fake supply deal and later became unreachable after collecting the money.
According to the complaint filed by Lavanya (name changed), a resident of Haralur, the fraud began on June 5 when she received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number (7818824289) detailing cashew nuts available for sale.
Interested in the offer, Lavanya contacted the sender and discussed the purchase of cashew nuts. The fraudster then shared a quotation purportedly issued by Sri Laxmi Cashew Industries, which later turned out to be fake.
Believing the deal to be genuine, she initially transferred Rs 25,000 to the bank account provided by the accused. She subsequently made a second transfer of Rs 4,10,750 on June 9 towards the purported purchase of the consignment.
To further build the complainant’s confidence, the fraudster shared transport details claiming that the cashew shipment had been dispatched. Trusting this information, she made an additional payment of Rs 2,25,000. However, despite receiving a total of Rs 6,60,750 through multiple transactions, the accused neither delivered the cashew consignment nor responded satisfactorily to her queries. Realising she had been duped, Lavanya approached police and lodged a complaint.
A case has been registered under the Information Technology Act and BNS Sections 318 (cheating) and 319 (cheating by personation) at the South-East cyber crime police station.
