People duped on pretext of home delivery of liquor in Gurugram

Gurugram: While there has been a 57 per cent decrease in the crimes like murder, robberies, snatchings and crimes against women during the lockdown, cybercrimes

especially online frauds have seen a 10 per cent increase in Gurugram.

Interestingly in the category of online frauds, people are being duped on the pretext of home delivery of liquor.

According to law enforcement officials, online frauds of home delivery of liquor make up 30 per cent of the cybercrimes occurring in the city.

From March 25 to April 27, there have been 80 cases of cybercrimes that have been registered in Gurugram. In this, there have been 34 registered cases of online crimes of sales and home delivery of liquor.

The sale of liquor has been prohibited in Haryana under the directives of lockdown.

Recently, the officials of Gurugram excise department lodged a formal complaint to the Gurugram Police regarding how fraudsters are cheating the customers using its

official title.

As per the district officials, fake pages of excise departments are being created under its official title for selling liquor online and also delivering it to the customer's homes.

Explaining the basic working of online fraudsters, the Gurugram Police explains that the criminals first arrange the contact numbers of the persons who purchase liquor from the vending units. Then they contact some of these people and by using the names of famous liquor stores, they promise the delivery of liquor of their choice.

The fake online sellers insist on online payment first before the delivery.

"I received a call from one of the persons who said that he would deliver the liquor of my choice. He was selling the booze at a higher price but as I was running out of the stock and paid Rs 3,000 through the online payment method. Later I found that the call that was made to me was a scam and my money was stolen," said Aditya Rana (name changed as per request) who was duped by fraudsters.

Taking cognisance of the whole situation, most of the prominent liquor vending unit owners have issued a statement that there is no sale of liquor of any kind taking place in Gurugram.

"Based on our investigation we have come to know that most of the cybercriminals have used this as an alternative to make quick bucks as most of the other financial activities have been slowed down due to the ongoing lockdown," said a senior official from Gurugram Police.