Ahmedabad: Grocery offer scam costs trader Rs 40k

Ahmedabad: A 65-year-old grocery trader from the Old City lost nearly Rs 40,000 after falling prey to an online fraud while trying to avail of a promotional grocery offer advertised on social media.

According to a complaint registered with Karanj police, Sunil Rajput, who runs a provision store near Victoria Garden, came across an advertisement on YouTube on May 17 offering five grocery items for just Rs 268.

Lured by the discounted deal, Rajput clicked on the link in the advertisement and downloaded an application on his mobile phone. He then selected items such as wheat flour, edible oil, sugar, rice and jaggery, and placed an order.

Two days later, on May 19, he proceeded to make the payment of Rs 268 using a credit card belonging to his wife. Shortly after the transaction began, he received a phone call from a person claiming to be a representative of the online grocery platform.

The caller allegedly told Rajput that an OTP was needed to “process” the order and asked him to share the code sent to his mobile phone. Believing the caller to be genuine, Rajput disclosed the OTP.

Within hours, he received an alert from his bank stating that Rs 39,899 had been debited from the credit card account. The promised grocery order never arrived.

Karanj police have registered a case of online cheating against the unidentified caller and launched an investigation into the fraud. .