Bizman falls for forex fraud, loses Rs 2 lakh | Pune News

Pune: A 28-year-old businessman, tempted by a dubious SMS offering cheap foreign exchange, found himself cheated out of Rs2 lakh.
The incident occurred on September 16 at Sainagar near Bibvewadi, where the businessman, Shekhar Mulik, met a man and exchanged a bag containing Rs2 lakh in cash for a newspaper packet purportedly containing UAE dirham notes. As it turned out, the packet contained cakes of detergent instead. Mulik approached the police on Sunday.
As per the complaint, Mulik — a raw material supplier to food courts and cafeterias in malls and software company — came across an SMS, which contained a link and a cellphone number, and offered dirham at a low rate of exchange.
“Mulik’s friend had first received the text message. He forwarded it to Mulik,” assistant inspector Rajesh Usgaonkar of the Bibvewadi police said, adding, “He had no plan of going to the UAE, but was tempted by the low rate.”
Mulik called the number in the SMS and then, emptied his savings account and further, borrowed money from a friend. At 7pm, Mulik and a friend went to Kondhwa, where they met a man. “The man counted the cash and told Mulik to meet another man, who was waiting with the forex, in Sainagar,” the FIR stated.
As per the FIR, they reached the spot at 8pm and met a man, who took the bag of cash from Mulik and handed over a red-coloured plastic bag. Mulik immediately found that there were two detergent cakes instead of dirham notes and tried to take back his bag. The suspect shoved Mulik and his friend and fled the spot. Mulik and his friend attempted to give chase, but in vain, police said.
“We have booked two men and are searching for them. We have obtained some clues, including the phone number of one of the suspects that was mentioned in the SMS,” Usgaonkar said.