Team Goemkarponn
FATORDA: Fatorda Police have registered a cheating case after a businessman from Fatorda was allegedly duped of ₹2.25 lakh through a fake email scam involving impersonation of a regular vendor.
According to the complaint filed by Oliver Coutinho, a resident of Fatorda, he received an email on March 26, 2026, at around 8.49 am from the email ID “vpaulgen@rediffmail.com”, which appeared to have been sent by his regular vendor, V. Paul De Sousa of Panaji.
Police said the email contained a copy of a blank cheque in the name of the vendor’s company and claimed that the vendor’s bank account details had been changed. The sender requested the complainant to transfer amounts of ₹2,25,000 and ₹1,33,894 through NEFT to an SBI Panaji account in the name of V. Paul De Souza.
Believing the email to be genuine, the complainant transferred ₹2.25 lakh on two occasions on March 26, police said.
However, when Coutinho later contacted the actual vendor, he discovered that no bank account change had been made and no such payment request had been sent. Police said it was then revealed that the email ID used in the communication was fake and had allegedly been created by an unknown accused person to impersonate the genuine vendor.
Based on the complaint, police said the accused cheated the complainant by inducing him to transfer money into a fraudulent bank account.
Further investigation is being carried out by PSI Salil Gaonkar of Fatorda Police Station.
