Citizen swindled out of Rs5m in dollar fraud, gang busted

KARACHI: A citizen was deprived of a whopping Rs5 million after being lured into purchasing counterfeit US dollars in return for a huge profit.

The Steel Town police said they have busted a gang involved in the fraud by arresting its two members following the registration of a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of Fahad Islam.

The complainant, who works in Iraq, relayed that he went to a hairdresser’s in Gulshan-e-Hadeed where he was offered to buy US dollars in return for hefty profits. The alleged fraudsters showed him two original US dollar notes of $50 denomination to earn his trust, he said.

He said the accused offered $30,000 worth of dividends on the purchase of US dollars worth Rs5 million.

SSP Malir Irfan Bahadur said the complainant was told that he would make a healthy profit of Rs280,000 on the deal. Later, the citizen was given three stacks of counterfeit US currency notes.

At the time of the deal, the citizen, on seeing a police van, started raising hue and cry, following which three accused, including a woman, sped away, the police officer said, adding that hairdressers Rajab and Mahbood who facilitated the deal have been arrested with investigation launched to arrest the fraudsters.