On Friday, fraudsters posing as army officers duped a man of Rs 90,000 while he was trying to sell furniture online.

The victim, a lab technician at a private hospital, received a phone call from an unnamed person pretending to be an army commander who expressed interest in purchasing the furniture and asked for the victim's bank information, said the police.

The victim found that the money had been taken from his account shortly after providing the information. Based on a complaint, the Kachiguda police department opened an inquiry.

In October last year, the Cyber Crimes Wing of the Cyberabad police department issued a warning against hackers posing as army or paramilitary officials and contacting people seeking to sell items on OLX, Quikr, or other websites.

After both parties agree on a price, the fraudster states that they are stationed in an inaccessible area of the country and hence are unable to pick up the delivery or pay in cash.

They gain the buyer's trust by using a fake army identity and demanding that the seller provide money via UPI. The hackers then email the seller a fake screen shot to indicate that a transaction has been made to the seller's account. The fraudster then plays his/her last card and walks the victim through the procedure by delivering a QR code that they say may be used to get the money. The victims trust them and scans the QR code, and enters the UPI pin to pay the money rather than receiving it.