Priest loses 25,000 in online con, 2 held

MUMBAI: Two unemployed men were arrested from Belapur on Saturday for allegedly swindling a priest of Rs25,000 by promising to sell an Apple phone at a discount. While the 50-year-old priest paid for the phone, it was never delivered to him.
The accused, Avinash Pandey (23) and Sunil Yadav (27), advertised on a free online portal. The phone was priced at Rs28,000 while its market price at that time was Rs60,000.The priest haggled with Pandey and struck the deal for Rs25,000. The fraud took place in January.
Officials of the cyber crime police station at Bandra-Kurla Complex said that the priest made an online payment for the purchase. Minutes after the money was credited to their account, Pandey and Yadav withdrew it and vamoosed.
The priest made the payment after Pandey sent him a WhatsApp message of a receipt showing that the phone had been sent by courier. “This receipt was fake,” said an officer, adding that the priest waited for a week but did not get the phone.
The police are verifying details of the phone as they suspect it was bought using fake documents. “From their bank statements, it seems they cheated at least seven othersthis way. The statements show seven credit entries of amounts between Rs10,000 and Rs20,000,” said an officer.
In his complaint, the priest said the men stopped responding to his calls and messages after getting the money.
DCP (cyber) M Rajkumar formed a team of senior inspector Kalpana Gadekar, assistant inspector Pravin Kharade and constables Vijay Gagre, Sanket Tawde and Ganesh Ingwale and nabbed the accused from their rented house on Saturday.