Two young men from Sonari have been duped into losing over Rs 9 lakh by a man posing as an army officer.

Mukesh Kumar Kushbah and Avinash Chowdhury, residents of Bal Vihar and Ashiana in Sonari respectively, lodged separate FIRs against the impersonator.

According to the FIR, Mukesh had seen a car for sale on OLX online recently and subsequently contacted the seller on the phone number provided. After speaking with the seller, who introduced himself as an Army officer, Mukesh received a few photographs of the vehicle from him.

After negotiations, the price was settled at Rs 5 lakh. Mukesh was first asked to pay Rs 5,000 for the delivery of the car. Subsequently, the accused asked him to deposit money online under various pretences, making him pay a total of Rs 9.13 lakh via 11 transactions. The seller then went incognito without delivering the car.

Avinash Kumar said that he wanted to sell his laptop on OLX. According to the FIR, a person contacted Avinash, claiming to be an Army officer, and showed interest in buying his laptop.

He then sent Avinash a barcode, asking him to scan it in order to receive payment for the laptop. The moment the barcode was scanned, Rs 60,000 was deducted from Avinash’s account. The perpetrator then went off the grid.

Cyber thana Bistupur inspector Upendra Mandal confirmed that two FIRs have been lodged against an unknown man, posing as an Army officer for duping two young men of over 9 lakh rupees.

"We have received FIRs from Mukesh Kumar Kushbah and Avinash Kumar on Wednesday. The frauds took place in the month of June. We have registered separate cases against the perpetrator and started investigation," Mandal told The Telegraph Online.