Saturday, April 9, 2016

iPhone con: One more e-tailer company files complaint


The accused, Anita Kulkarni, and her accomplice were arrested from Kharghar in March

NAVI MUMBAI: Days after Snapdeal filed a case against a 49-year-old conwoman for allegedly cheating it of three iPhones worth Rs 1.39 lakh, Flipkart registered an FIR against her at the Kharghar police station. The accused, Anita Kulkarni, and her accomplice were arrested from Kharghar in March.

"Dombivli resident Anita Kulkarni (49) and Naupada resident Mobin Mahafule (24) had rented a flat in Kharghar's Eden Garden Sector-5 using using the names Anita and Siddharth Chabra. The duo, who claimed to be mother and son, would book three iPhones online with cash-on-delivery option. When the courier boy would be busy counting the Rs 1.39 lakh cash handed over by Kulkarni, Mahafule would swap the parcel with empty iPhone boxes stuffed with salt packets and then return it claiming that the iPhones were not of the same colour as they had ordered," said assistant police inspector Krishna Kokani.

As courier boys are not allowed to open parcels, it would be returned to the e-tailer company. When Snapdeal found that the IMEI numbers on the returned iPhone boxes were different from those on the invoice and the complaints were from the same address in Kharghar, it registered a complaint through its courier agency. In March, the crime branch central unit team raided the flat, seized 17 iPhones worth Rs 8.16 lakh and empty iPhone boxes and salt packets and arrested Kulkarni and Mahafule.

The police are yet to ascertain the role of Kulkarni's 17-year-old son in the crime. The teenager would allegedly buy empty iPhone boxes for Rs 30-50 a piece from the streets near Heera Panna in Tardeo and near Regal cinema in south Mumbai, said a police officer.

'Mom-son' duo swaps pricey iPhones with dummy models, returns them to e-tailers
Cops Raid Kharghar Flat, Find 17 Phones Worth Total Rs 8 Lakh


Navi Mumbai: A 49-year-old woman and a youth, who posed as mother and son, have been arrested for allegedly cheating several e-tailer firms, including Snapdeal, of expensive iPhones.

"After Snapdeal lodged a complaint against the 'mother-son' duo, crime branch sleuths raided their Kharghar flat and seized 17 iPhones worth a total Rs 8.16 lakh. We have urged other e-tailers to come forward and register complaints against them," said Navi Mumbai deputy commissioner of Police (crime) Dilip Sawant.

Crime branch central unit officials said that Dombivli resident Anita Shirish Kulkarni (49) and Naupada resident Mobin Yusuf Mahafule (24) had rented a flat in Kharghar's Eden Garden Sector-5 using forged documents using the names Anita and Siddharth Chabra. Explaining the modus operandi, the police said that the duo would book iPhones online with cash-on-delivery option. The police said that when the parcel would arrive at their rented residence, Kulkarni would engage the delivery boy in a conversation, while the youth would take the parcel inside, swap it with a similar box containing a dummy iPhone model, and return the "parcel" to the delivery boy complaining that it's a defective piece.

"Kulkarni and Mahafule have several similar cheating cases registered against them in Thane, Pune and Ahmedabad where they used the same modus operandi," said Sawant.

"The duo had purchased three iPhones from Snapdeal with cash-on-delivery option. When the package was delivered to their rented apartment in Kharghar, they swapped the delivered parcel with a similar box containing a dummy models and returned it to the delivery boy claiming they were defective pieces," said Navi Mumbai police commissioner Prabhat Ranjan.

"Sensing something was amiss, Snapdeal lodged a complaint with the crime branch department. An investigation revealed that Kulkarni and Mahafule had used fake identities to rent the flat as mother and son and had cheated other e-tailers using the same modus operandi." The Kharghar police have booked them for cheating and forgery under IPC sections 420, 465,468, 469, 471 and 34.

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