A day after the State Government allowed home delivery of liquor, a resident here became prey to cyber fraud being duped of a whopping Rs 1.36 lakh after he placed an online order for liquor on Sunday.
The victim Anjan Barik of Manchewar has lodged a complaint at the local police station in this connection last evening.
While surfing on social networking site Facebook, Barik came across a post that claimed to receive orders for home delivery of liquor from a shop named ‘Kadambari’. When he contacted the number shared in the post, the receiver asked him to pay Rs 200 through PhonePe.
After Barik sent Rs 200 to the account claimed to be of one Biswapratap Routray, the fraudster again sent a barcode and asked him to scan it. When he scanned the barcode, a sum of Rs 1,36,500 was deducted from his bank account in four phases.
“I had Rs 1.37 lakh in my account. Now, it is left with Rs 500 only,” Barik reportedly said.
Notably, a bank official in Bhubaneswar had also been duped of Rs 19,000 after placing an online order for liquor last month.
Excise Superintendent Prasanna Acharya reportedly said the contact details of those to provide home delivery services for liquor have been uploaded on the Odisha State Beverage Corporation (OSBC) website. He advised people not to deposit money in advance to people with phone numbers other than these while placing online orders for liquor.