A man has been apprehended for his alleged involvement in a scam where he created a counterfeit website impersonating Mumbai’s renowned sweet shop, “Tewari Brothers,” deceiving unsuspecting customers with promises of delivering delectable sweets. Rahul Dogra, a 33-year-old resident of Agra, Uttar Pradesh, engineered this fraudulent scheme, using his personal contact information on the bogus website, and cunningly duped customers into making payments under false pretenses.
According to the police, the victim in this case, a 50-year-old school employee, was searching for the contact details of “Tewari Brothers” on Google in order to place an order for sweets, intending to distribute them among teachers and students to celebrate Parsi New Year.
On August 16, during her search, she encountered a website that appeared genuine. Unaware of its fraudulent nature, she proceeded to contact the phone number provided on the site. An investigator involved in the case recounted, “While she was searching for it on August 16, she came across a website and without realizing that it was fake, she contacted the number mentioned on the website.”
Following her order for sweets and snacks, the individual posing as a representative of the sweet shop demanded an upfront payment, insisting that the order could not be delivered without it. “She was told that the sweets and snacks would not be delivered until she made an advance payment of Rs 1,950. After making the payment, when she contacted them again for delivery, the accused asked her to complete the formalities by sharing her UPI ID, on which she sent the money,” the officer explained. The imposter then instructed the woman to enter a specific confirmation code, “29991,” into the payment portal. When the victim raised questions, the scammer manipulated her into complying with the request by convincing her that it was necessary for the delivery to proceed.