A few months ago, Mundhwa resident FK Dalimbkar saw an advertisement in a local newspaper that promised high returns to people renting out their terrace or land for installation of mobile towers of a few reputed mobile companies. Little did he know that soon he was to lose Rs1.9lakh after responding to the advertisement that was placed by a con man.
What’s worse is that Dalimbkar is one of the 30 victims that have recently approached the department of telecommunication (DoT) office and complained about such cheating incidents taking place in the city.
A DoT official said that the total amount siphoned off by con men in the recent cases is around Rs50 lakh. The increasing number of such fraud cases has led deputy director general, telecom enforcement resources and monitoring (Term), DoT, Vineet Mathur, to write to the city police requesting them to take appropriate action against the cheaters and generate awareness urging people to not fall prey to such tactics.
Cops to probe case
Deputy commissioner of police (cyber and economic offences wing) Sanjay Shinde said that victims should come forward and register complaints. He urged citizens to not fall prey to such advertisements.
Victims’ ordeal
FK Dalimbkar came across an advertisement in a local vernacular daily placed by a company that wanted to set up mobile towers on behalf of telecom major and was looking for land, plots or terraces.
“After I messaged on the given mobile numbers, a representative called asking for address of the land. They promised me Rs90,000 as monthly rent and Rs95 lakh deposit. After two days, the same person called me and said that they selected the land after a satellite survey and asked to deposit Rs10,000 towards registration fees in their account,” he said.
The fraudsters then made him deposit money in an account on several occasions citing procedure and documentation fees. To win his confidence, the suspects also sent him fake cheques, contract papers and some documents bearing the emblem of DoT by email.
Dalimbkar said that he had deposited around Rs1.9 lakh into their account till August.
“It was in August when they asked for Rs45,000 that I told them to come personally to see the land. They switched off their cellphones, following which I approached the police and DoT,” he said. Another victim Santosh Galande of Wadgaonsheri was duped in a similar fashion of a much bigger amount. Galande had decided to rent out his land at Wadgaonsheri and paid three times into the account of fraudsters who had promised him a deposit amount of Rs1crore, besides Rs1 lakh rent per month.
Beware of such ads
Mathur advised people coming across such advertisements to visit the DoT website to check list of companies that have been given contracts of erecting mobile towers. He said that other than these certified firms, treat other companies as fakes.
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