Mumbai: Believing a random reel on Instagram about getting desired marks in IELTS exams proved costly for a 37-year-old man who wanted to pursue an MBA course abroad. The victim who believed the reel, contacted the scammer who had posted the reel and was told by the scammer that he had people at the place from where the IELTS results are dispatched and that he can get the victim's desired marks in the result in lieu of money.
According to the police, the victim is a resident of Dongri in South-Mumbai and works in a private company. The victim wanted to pursue MBA abroad and had also given IELTS exams last year. However, he could not achieve his goals since he had gotten less marks in the exams. On August 28, while the victim was watching Instagram reels on his phone he came across a reel claiming to give good marks in IELTS exams.
The victim then contacted the mobile number mentioned in the reel and inquired further about how they could get desired marks in the IELTS exams. The fraudster then told the victim that he has people at the place from where the IELTS results are dispatched. The fraudster then demanded money in order to get the job done. From August 30 till September 06, the victim ended up transferring Rs 2.18 lakh in the bank account provided by the scammer.
However, despite having paid so much money, when the victim confronted the scammer as to why he had not received his result, the scammer gave various excuses such as rejection of the victim's biometric, etc. When the demand for money from the scammer kept continuing, the victim realised that he had been scammed. He then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter last week.
A case has been registered by the Dongri police under sections 318 (cheating), of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act in the matter.
