Hyderabad: A software professional in the city, who ordered Chicken Biryani for a little over Rs 200 on a popular food delivery app, ended up losing a whopping Rs 50,000 and in the end, had to settle for a packet of sambar rice.
The techie from Rahmat Nagar in Jubilee Hills, went through the unbelievably ‘costly’ online food order after he dialled a number he found on the internet, thinking it was the customer care number of the delivery app. But in reality the number was from a phishing page that led him to the conmen who cashed in on the opportunity.
The episode began unfurling two days ago when the techie, after ordering ‘biryani’ on the food delivery app Zomato, received a packet of ‘sambar rice’ instead. Infuriated over being handed over the wrong packet, the man browsed the internet for the Zomato customer care number and on finding a number, dialled it, and poured out his woes.
On the other end of the line, a group of conmen first pacified him and then assured him of initiating a refund. After finding that he had a Paytm account, they convinced him to follow their instructions.
They took his Paytm details, and led him step by step through the ‘refund process’. When they reached the message ‘Proceed to Pay’, the techie did so, thinking it was him who would receive the money. The fraudsters told him there was an error and they repeated the process thrice.
It was only after going through the process thrice that he found Rs 50,000 was debited from his account, following which he approached the police, said K V M Prasad, ACP, Cyber Crimes, Hyderabad.
The police, who cautioned the public against depending on unverified portals, said the man could have lodged a complaint on the app itself. The Cybercrime wing registered a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and 66 C and 66 D of the IT Act and investigation is on.
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