Bengaluru: On New Year's Day, the 43-year-old techie lost Rs 96,000 by complying with the fraudster's payment instructions, which he misunderstood for orders from a liquor store representative.

After doing a quick internet search, he placed his order, only to be duped by cybercriminals.

Techie, a Thirumenahalli resident in Sampigehalli, filed a police complaint claiming that he preferred to purchase alcohol online rather than drive to the closest store.

At 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, he looked up MRP stores on Thanisandra Main Road online. With the motto, "Delivery milega-7086555800, call me," he discovered "Surya Wines." The person he spoke with on the phone identified himself as Pankaj Sharma, a worker at the wine shop.

Techie told a media outlet that when he called at the wine shop, he heard noise in the background. It resembled a busy liquor outlet, he said. He placed the order after the outlet worker informed him that he would call back to inform about the bill amount. Techie stated that after a few minutes the outlet worker called him and informed that he had to pay Rs 5,610.

The techie told the wine outlet worker that he wanted to opt for cash for delivery. The wine outlet worker told him that the system does not release the order unless payment is made. The wine outlet worker further sent a QR code on Whatsapp.

After he made the payment, the wine outlet worker called him and said that there was a Rs 30 delivery charge which he had to pay. The wine outlet worker told him that the payment had to be made in one transaction otherwise the system would not release the order. The techie was asked to make another payment of Rs 5,640 and was assured that the wine outlet would return the previous payment of Rs 5,610 in cash at the time of delivery. The techie told the media outlet that it was his biggest mistake to make another payment.

Techie asked the man to send the bill as a proof of transaction. After some time the wine outlet called stating that the bill is auto generated on payment and convinced the techie to go to the digital payment application (GooglePay) and gave him a UPI ID and asked the techie to enter the PIN 19922. He entered the PIN and Rs 19,922 got deducted from his account.

The caller instructed techie to complete additional transactions under the guise of recovering the lost money, citing technical difficulties. By the time techie realized he was being duped, he had already lost Rs 96,000 and completed four transactions.

Techie stated that when he asked the wine outlet worker to return the money, he said that he would send it through RTGS. By then it was 4 pm and he realized that he had been conned and stopped following his instructions. He went to the police station and lodged a complaint.

On being asked why he tried to buy liquor online when it is not allowed in the state, techie said that he had procured liquor from another outlet in a similar manner last year. It was delivered to his house. He wanted to spend time with family this time and, moreover, his car had some problems.