MUMBAI: SakiNaka police arrested three teenagers on Friday in an alleged case of defrauding a hotel owner for a total of Rs49,400 that they allegedly paid for the food they received with an e-wallet (PayTM) between Jan. 2021) and January 6 (2022).
However, the money was never added to the hotel’s bank account. The fraud was only observed on Thursday when one of the defendants, identified as Ayush Jagdale, 20, visited the same hotel (Hotel Blue Sea) again and paid 2,700 rupees for the food ordered.
However, the hotel manager noted that he had not received a transaction credit notification on the bank account as the displayed money was paid on Jagdale’s cell phone.
The incident aroused curiosity and the hotel manager, Rajnish Mishra, 28, went through all previous transactions that Jagdale and his two arrested friends had made using electronic wallets to pay the meal bill – Mohammed Khalil aka Anas Shaikh, 23. ) and Ibrahim Kazi (27) – during their previous visits and found that the hotel never received the grand total of Rs49,400 for the meal they had in the past month.
To explain the modus operandi, Maheshwar Reddy of DCP (Zone X) said: “The trio had used an e-wallet spoof app (PayTM) in the fraud. The app is similar to the original e-wallet and is operated by entering the name of the merchant and reflecting any mobile number and the invoice amount as well as entering the payment option and payment made. ”
When the hotel manager, Mishra, found out about the fraud, he informed the SakiNaka police and complained.
Based on the complaint, DCP Reddy was overseeing the chief inspector of the Sakinaka Police Department Balwant Deshmukh, Inspector Dilip Thorat, sub-inspector Tanaji Pandare, and investigative staff interrogated Jagdale and snatched his staff within two hours of registering the first intelligence report. “The trio used the spoofing app they downloaded from the Play Store after finding out about it on the Internet,” said the policeman.
The investigation team is also investigating whether the trio used the spoofing wallet app to defraud other stores or hotels or establishments with a similar modus operandi. You are in police custody for fraud, forgery and identity theft by the IPC sections and the IT law.
However, the money was never added to the hotel’s bank account. The fraud was only observed on Thursday when one of the defendants, identified as Ayush Jagdale, 20, visited the same hotel (Hotel Blue Sea) again and paid 2,700 rupees for the food ordered.
However, the hotel manager noted that he had not received a transaction credit notification on the bank account as the displayed money was paid on Jagdale’s cell phone.
The incident aroused curiosity and the hotel manager, Rajnish Mishra, 28, went through all previous transactions that Jagdale and his two arrested friends had made using electronic wallets to pay the meal bill – Mohammed Khalil aka Anas Shaikh, 23. ) and Ibrahim Kazi (27) – during their previous visits and found that the hotel never received the grand total of Rs49,400 for the meal they had in the past month.
To explain the modus operandi, Maheshwar Reddy of DCP (Zone X) said: “The trio had used an e-wallet spoof app (PayTM) in the fraud. The app is similar to the original e-wallet and is operated by entering the name of the merchant and reflecting any mobile number and the invoice amount as well as entering the payment option and payment made. ”
When the hotel manager, Mishra, found out about the fraud, he informed the SakiNaka police and complained.
Based on the complaint, DCP Reddy was overseeing the chief inspector of the Sakinaka Police Department Balwant Deshmukh, Inspector Dilip Thorat, sub-inspector Tanaji Pandare, and investigative staff interrogated Jagdale and snatched his staff within two hours of registering the first intelligence report. “The trio used the spoofing app they downloaded from the Play Store after finding out about it on the Internet,” said the policeman.
The investigation team is also investigating whether the trio used the spoofing wallet app to defraud other stores or hotels or establishments with a similar modus operandi. You are in police custody for fraud, forgery and identity theft by the IPC sections and the IT law.