Woman shares 3 credit card pictures while placing liquor order online, loses ₹2L

Mumbai: A 40-year-old executive assistant, working with a healthcare company was assigned to order liquor for her company’s annual meet celebration. Excited about the event, the executive searched for a wine shop online and called their number. Little did she know that a simple liquor order would cost her ₹2 lakh.

Complainant Pooja Parshad, who works with Rivaara Labs Private Limited, informed the Cuffe-Parade police that she was entrusted to order liquor for their company’s annual meet at GCC Hotel and Club in Mira Road and the club had allowed them to bring liquor from outside.

She found the number of the wine shop online and contacted them. She placed an order for bottles of red wine, whisky, beer and vodka, the bill for which came to ₹21,994.

When she asked about the mode of payment to the caller, he told her to send him the front photo of the credit card, saying that they will block the amount on the card. “Once you get the delivery, you can swipe the card and then pay us,” the caller told Parshad.

Soon after disconnecting the call, she received a message that ₹21,994 was debited from her account. She called the number again. The man told her if any amount is debited from her account, it will get refunded as it was not showing in their records. He told her if she needed delivery of liquor, she should immediately pay money, or else the order would be cancelled.

“The accused then sent her a QR code for UPI. However, the woman was unable to pay the money using the code. The man then told her there was some issue and demanded she should send him the photo of her second credit card. And the victim sent the picture,” said the police officer.

The woman immediately got a message on her phone that ₹99,780 was debited from her credit card. When she called the number, the fraud cooked up another story saying that due to back-to-back orders of a big party, it appeared that by mistake her card was swiped against that order. However, she should not worry, her money will be returned to her in 24 hours. They again insisted that she should make payment for her order immediately or it could get cancelled.

“The woman again got a message that payment of ₹98,767 was declined by her credit card. When she called back, the man told her it could be another mistake and asked her to share a screenshot of the message. They also again asked her to make payment for her order,” said the police officer.

This time, the woman sent the photo of her third credit card to the fraud and immediately got a message saying an amount of ₹39,993 was debited from her connected account.

“The woman called the number and told the man to refund the money immediately. She also told the caller that she is coming to the shop but he told her that the shop was closed due to a rally, and they were operating from the godown,” said a police officer.

The fraud, however, again sent her a code to scan and a UPI number. After that, she immediately received ₹10 in her account. Immediately after she confirmed that she had received the amount of ₹10, she received a message that ₹39,995 was debited from her account.

Angry Parshad then visited the wine shop at Crawford Market, where the owner informed her that the shop’s website was hacked by frauds, who changed the number and were cheating people, said a police officer.

She then approached the MRA Marg police station and gave a written complaint.

Sandesh Revale, senior police inspector of Cuffe-Parade police station said people should be alert while dealing online as several numbers have been changed by frauds.