THANE: A 33-year-old man was arrested for allegedly cheating over three dozen jewellers and hoteliers in various states of over Rs 25 lakh by tampering with the digital payment method from a application and making fake screenshot of successful payment to them.
The accused, Subramaniam Iyer, presently residing in Andheri but a native of Bilaspur Chattisgarh was arrested for at least cheating 14 jewellers and 32 hoteliers across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi etc. The amount cheated so far is of around Rs. 25 lakh and the count is still on, said Sadashiv Nikam, the senior inspector of Vartak Nagar police station.
The police delved deeper into the case after a complainant registered an offense that the victim was cheated of Rs 97,330 by the accused.
“The modus operandi of Iyer was that he used to purchase the goods or book hotel rooms and make payment through the app to the merchant.
However, while making payments he used to tamper with the digital payment mode. Usually when he made the payment, it used to get rejected for want of funds and the same was indicated in the screen of the mobile. However, he used to make a payment of Rs. 1 in any other account from his account which used to come out successful,” Nikam informed TOI.
The officer added, “he used to tamper with the same successful transaction and change the name of the payee, and the amount in it which indicated successful transaction. Then he used to present the same tampered transaction to either the hotelier or the jeweler and make purchases in a similar fashion.”
The officer informed that he used to take both the failed and successful transactions together and merge them and create a third screenshot that looked similar to the one of having successfully made the payment.
He used to present the tampered screenshot to the business and thus cheat them, the police said.
The probe also revealed that one similar offense is already registered with the Shivaji Park and NM Marg police stations, the police said.
The accused, Subramaniam Iyer, presently residing in Andheri but a native of Bilaspur Chattisgarh was arrested for at least cheating 14 jewellers and 32 hoteliers across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi etc. The amount cheated so far is of around Rs. 25 lakh and the count is still on, said Sadashiv Nikam, the senior inspector of Vartak Nagar police station.
The police delved deeper into the case after a complainant registered an offense that the victim was cheated of Rs 97,330 by the accused.
“The modus operandi of Iyer was that he used to purchase the goods or book hotel rooms and make payment through the app to the merchant.
However, while making payments he used to tamper with the digital payment mode. Usually when he made the payment, it used to get rejected for want of funds and the same was indicated in the screen of the mobile. However, he used to make a payment of Rs. 1 in any other account from his account which used to come out successful,” Nikam informed TOI.
The officer added, “he used to tamper with the same successful transaction and change the name of the payee, and the amount in it which indicated successful transaction. Then he used to present the same tampered transaction to either the hotelier or the jeweler and make purchases in a similar fashion.”
The officer informed that he used to take both the failed and successful transactions together and merge them and create a third screenshot that looked similar to the one of having successfully made the payment.
He used to present the tampered screenshot to the business and thus cheat them, the police said.
The probe also revealed that one similar offense is already registered with the Shivaji Park and NM Marg police stations, the police said.
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