[Resolved]  Olx India — FAKE CAR AD posted on OLX INDIA

Address:	New Delhi, Delhi, 110055
Website:	www.olx.in/item/2010-maruti-suzuki-wagon-r-cng-49000-kms-ID1anlP3.html

On 9/3/2017, I searched a Wagon R car on OLX and found it quite suitable for myself. I started the conversation with the seller. His fake name was Rahul.
He was interested in talking on the phone only. When I called he said, ya he has posted this ad and someone is really interested in this car and if you are interested then make the token payment so that I will stop talking to other buyers. I made the token payment through PAYTM i.e. Rs. 1000/- He kept saying I was out and will meet you in the evening. He sent me an address on my WhatsApp number and when I reached to that address that address was non-existent. I kept calling on that number and with no surprise, it was not reachable and switched off.
In the meanwhile, I asked my friend to call him from another number, he called and somehow my friend managed to get his Bank account details.

His details account details are [protected] with the name Shailesh Wankhede, IFSC code BKID0008716.

When I found out that it was a fake ad and was a conspiracy to get money from genuine buyers. I searched SHAILESH WANKHEDE on facebook, I inquired with him if he is the one who had posted any ad for a car? He said no I did not. I explained my situation and the loss I suffered. To my surprise he said 15-20 days back I got a call complaining the same thing. I was astonished to hear that. I asked, if you have any contact details of that person, he was having it. I called the given number. The modes Operandi of the cheating was same as it was with me. Same account number has been given to him as well.

It was not just a case of cheating money, but also a credibility of OLX is also at stake. I know OLX is just a platform, but there should be some verification for the advertisements given. OLX is not there just to increase the number of ads posted. OLX is a big name and it becomes their responsibility to check ads before getting it posted. I will make sure and ask everyone connected to me to not to use OLX as they don't take any responsibility.
Later on, I searched I found out that the photos used by him were taken from CARTRADE.com. I would suggest OLX to use Google Image Search API to detect fraud cases. One more suggestion I would like to make is that allow users to comment on the ads, why I am suggesting this. As soon as I realized that it is a fraud ad, I did not have any medium to stop this and save other buyers to get cheated. One more suggestion I have for OLX, having phone number can't validate the seller as we all know in Rs. 5 we are getting new mobile numbers. Cheaters buy these new numbers create the new account, posts new ads and cheat genuine buyers.

And see the irony of this whole thing. We have the account number, we have the name, we have the proofs that he has taken the money and still we cannot catch him. Of course, I will go to the cybercell, but I don't think anything would happen.

He has used fake whatsapp DP's to convince buyers. i would also want buyers to get little bit more responsible while purchasing anything online and more importantly on OLX as there is no security kind of thing available.