Incidents of cyber scam are on rise, with quite a number of cases being reported. Another distressing episode of online fraud has been brought into the limelight recently. A 50-year-old dairy farmer from Pandala, Gurugram, fell prey to cyber fraudsters while attempting to purchase cows at a discounted rate. He incurred a loss of Rs 22,000 in the process of purchasing cows. The Gurugram farmer paid Rs 22,000 in four instalments on January 19 and 20, Hindustan Times reported.
The farmer named Sukhbir came across an online ad offering four cows for Rs 95,000, a lucrative deal as compared to the standard market rate of Rs 1 lakh, as per the report. It was only later that he realised he had been duped.
Sukhbir’s 30-year-old son Parveen narrated about the incident. According to Parveen, his father was watching videos on YouTube on his phone. He then got a number, either through an advertisement or through Google, and contacted them. The fraudsters then sent him photos of cows for him to select and offered a cow for Rs 35,000. He was eventually offered four cows for Rs 95,000.
A case has been registered under sections of cheating – 419 and 420 – of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against unidentified people, the report suggests.
In March 2023, a farmer from Gwalior attempted to buy a buffalo online from Sharma Dairy Farm in Jaipur but was conned out of Rs 87,000. Hotam Singh Baghel was impressed by the offer of a buffalo for Rs 60,000 after seeing a Facebook advertisement. Singh got in touch with the farm’s owner, who demanded Rs 4,200 for shifting the buffalo from Jaipur to Gwalior.
However, when the buffalo failed to reach on time, Singh was forced to pay an additional amount of Rs 12,000 after the owner claimed that the GPS tracker of the vehicle’s GPS was not working. Unaware of internet payments, the farmer took money from his wife’s jewellery and paid the bill. The scammer subsequently increased his demand to Rs 25,000, which Singh complied with by mortgaging his wife’s other ornaments.
When the buffalo still didn’t show up at Singh’s door, he finally contacted the driver, who said the vehicle had met in an accident and the buffalo had broken its leg. When the driver demanded more money, Singh realised he had been duped and immediately called the police.
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