Instances of fraudsters posing as CAPFs on the rise

New Delhi: For Ankita, an MA student, Rs 50,000 means a lot — a lot that she lost to a fraudster, who posed as a defence personnel renting out a property to win her trust. As per officials, they have seen property frauds rise during the second Covid wave in April and May.

In such property fraud cases, the victims register their property on the internet with details and the fraudsters contact them, pretending to rent the property and posing as defence personnel. They tell the owner that they are willing to pay an advance.

Later, this fraudster will ask the owner to send Rs 1 or Rs 5 to them to check whether their wallet is working or not. The first time, they will return the money and after winning the trust, they will again ask to send money and will tell the owner that they will refund all the money along with the rent. Once the owner sends the money, they switch off their phone and flee.

"As an MA student, I don't have a regular income and have been saving for the past one year to repay my education loan. I don't have enough savings to pay for my EMI and there is no mechanism to get it delayed or not be fined because of the fraud," Ankita said.

She added that she filed a complaint in one of the police stations in Dwarka district but no action was taken in her complaint. Not only Ankita but several such people also became victims of such crimes. Meanwhile, in another case, a person was duped of Rs 8,000 with the same modus operandi. "I believed him by respecting the rank he holds in one of the CAPFs and I have sent the money to his account," he said.

According to the Central Industrial Security Force, this year itself they have received more than 150 complaints of various kinds of cheating on the pretext of selling vehicles, household items, renting properties and others through emails.

"Every two to three days we receive such complaints through social media platforms also," an official said. According to officials, these cheaters pose as CISF personnel and also send fake ID cards to victims. "People have to differentiate one thing. In several cases they have seen that the fraudster, who posed himself as CISF personnel, informed victims that they had sent their purchased vehicles or any household items through Army vehicles. They also send transportation details of the Army. We just want to say CISF personnel cannot use Army vehicles for such purposes," the official said. In some cases, these criminals were also found using real names of other CISF personnel who were posted in different parts of the country, due to which these personnel have had to face internal inquiries.