Building contractor duped of Rs. 4.49 lakh

Mysuru: In yet another case of online fraud, a building contractor has been duped of Rs. 4.49 lakh in the name of supply of plywood at cheaper rates.
The victim, a contractor of Kotehundi in the taluk, was building a house and searched for plywood suppliers in Google, when he clicked the link that was created in the name of Century Plywood, which company had claimed that it would supply quality plywood at a cheaper rate.
Later, he called the Mobile number 80901-07457 that was mentioned in the link, when a person, who identified himself as Narayan Singh, said that his company offers quality plywood at cheaper price and subsequently also sent the image of plywood as a sample through WhatsApp.
Later, the contractor ordered for 30 plywood sheets, when Narayan Singh sent an invoice for Rs. 4,49,856, telling the contractor that a 10 percent discount would be given if paid in full in one instalment.
Believing him, the contractor transferred the amount (Rs. 4,49,856) to Narayan Singh’s account and contacted Singh when he replied that the plywood has been loaded at Bengaluru to a transport vehicle.
He also sent a photo of the goods vehicle which he had claimed was loaded with plywood sheets.
But the contractor did not receive the plywood even after several days and the ‘plywood supplier’ also blocked his (contractor’s) cell phone number.
Feeling cheated, the contractor then lodged a complaint with the District CEN Police, who have registered a case in this regard and are investigating.