Conman’s sleight of hand outwits e-commerce firms

By Praveen Kumar | NT

Bengaluru: A conman in his late twenties, along with his two associates, is giving sleepless nights to the branches of e-commerce companies and courier agencies, as he is hoodwinking their staff.

The modus operandi is as follows: He will book mobile phones online and when delivery agents call, he would tell them that he will collect it from their office. At the branch he and his associates would divert the attention of the staff and steal high-end phones from packed consignments and replace it with washing soap bars.

They will then pretend not having cash and leave. Soon after, the order will be cancelled. When the employees check the package to return the cancelled order they will come to know of the fraud.

Many such cases have been reported on the city outskirts and in the neighbouring Tumakuru and Chikkaballapura. The accused places the orders under the name Rohith and provides a North Karnataka address.

D.M. Mohan Kumar, manager of the Flipkart branch office on the Bengaluru- Chikkaballapura Road has filed a police complaint against Rohith and his two associates on Thursday. The accused have escaped with two iPhones worth Rs 99,998 from the said branch. After taking away the iPhones, they have replaced the package with washing soaps.

“The accused had visited the branch with his two other associates. One of them would wait outside, the other two would enter the branch and divert the attention of our staff. Within two to three minutes, they opened the package, picked the mobile phones and replaced it with detergent soaps. The branch does not accept cards and only cash transactions are allowed. It appears that the accused were aware of this. He gave us a card for the payment. When we asked them to give cash, he took back the card and said he would return with cash the next day and left with his associates. While engaging our staff in this discussion, the accused had cheated us by taking away the phones,” Kumar told NT.

More cases

When the news spread, it was found that the same accused had hoodwinked another courier agency near Shira in Tumkauru. He had provided the same phone number for booking the mobile phones.

“The company’s security team found out that he had booked similar consignments and another courier agency was assigned to deliver the order. The security team alerted their branch office and by the time the staff went there, the accused left. He was unable to cheat them this time,” said a police officer.