It is disheartening to discover yet another case of a franchise scam, where a group of individuals enticed a director of an engineering company based in Pune, leading to a loss of a staggering amount of ₹1 Crore.
There is no doubt that the Indian economy is experiencing exceptional growth, and many individuals are eagerly seeking successful franchises to capitalize on this trend.
While we strive to provide our visitors and clients with reliable, trusted, and authentic franchise information, it is unfortunate that some people still fall victim to untrustworthy platforms and scams.
The news regarding the Pune-based engineering director is indeed a valuable learning experience. It sheds light on the importance of conducting thorough research and exercising caution when exploring franchise opportunities.
News:
A director of an engineering company in Pimpri Chinchwad, who fell victim to a franchise scam operated by some group of People including, Deepak Sharma, Nipun Mittal, and Prakash Singh.
The fraudsters targeted him with a fake promise for offering a renowned franchise opportunity for an America’s leading pizza restaurant chain, Domino’s. They claimed that Domino’s has associated with the upcoming cricket World Cup and lured him with the growth prospects of opening another branch at the Pune Airport.
After doing to multiple transactions to various bank accounts between June 9th and July 7th, the director found it suspicious and went on to file a FIR complaint at the Bhosari MIDC police station on July 7th.
These transactions were solely made under the pretext of establishing franchise outlets in Mumbai and Pune during the upcoming World cup. In light of a similar cyber fraud case in the past, authorities suspect that this could be another fraudulent scheme where cyber criminals impersonate company representatives to deceive interested buyers with false franchise opportunities.
According to the FIR, the victim, who is employed as an director of engineering company, had been actively seeking investment options in the food and hospitality sector. It was also stated that, while searching he encountered an ad, promising for Pizza Chain franchise. He filled out the form and in return received a call from an individual posing as a franchisor executive.
As per the report filled in the FIR, the fraud progressed with persuading the victim into making payments for processing fees, no-objection certificates, machinery, and interior decoration, and more.
On June 21, He received a fake letter of intent, outlining the terms and conditions of the contract. Initially, the impersonator/ fraudster coerced him to transfer ₹2.65 lakh as an initial processing fee, followed by ₹6 lakhs for a no-objection certificate (NOC) and ₹7.5 lakh as an initial payment for machinery.
After swindling a substantial amount, the fraudster again contacted the victim for additional transfers of ₹2.6 lakh and two payments of around ₹12 lakh each to complete the contractual formalities. In addition to that, they also insisted him for ₹ 20 lakh for the interior decoration of the franchise outlet at the Pune International Airport.
I’m still astounded by how the victim was hypnotized and continued to send money to the fraudster without conducting any background checks or investigations.
Now after a few week, once again the fraudster called him the victim by impersonating themselves as senior executives. This time, they went far ahead and requested payments of ₹15 lakh and ₹33 lakh for these franchises, which the victim reluctantly made(WTH!). That concludes to an amount transactions of over ₹ 1 Crore.
According to the victim, who may have lost a significant amount of wealth in this scam, suspicions arose during the transfer of ₹33 lakh when he discovered that the funds were being sent to personal accounts instead of a registered entity.
Disturbed by his findings, the victim approached the Pimpri-Chinchwad police and filed a complaint. Authorities have now initiated a probe into the individuals associated with the cyber fraudsters, including Deepak Sharma, Nipun Mittal, and Prakash Singh, focusing on their cell phone numbers, email addresses, and bank accounts.
This incident serves as a reminder to exercise caution and conduct thorough research before engaging in any franchise opportunities or financial transactions online.
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