Fraudster poses as Apple store employee to shop owner

Swindles more than ₹7 lakh using a payment screenshot, dispatching iPhones to another location across multiple states

Kolkata police recently cracked a sophisticated multi-state fraud case involving a man who duped a city mobile shop owner of ₹7 lakh using a clever impersonation scheme. The incident reportedly took place on September 22, when Mayank Agarwal introduced himself as Rajesh from the Apple iTech Store to Vikram Dev Singh, owner of a mobile shop on Sarat Bose Road.
At the time, a Big Billion Day sale was underway on a leading e-commerce platform. Exploiting the frenzy, Agarwal lured Singh with a tempting proposition. He claimed that while Apple usually offered a modest 4–5% discount on iPhones and accessories, he could arrange an exclusive 7–8% discount. Convinced by the seemingly legitimate offer, Singh agreed and transferred a total of ₹7 lakh in two installments—₹4 lakh and ₹3 lakh.

Following the transfer, Singh placed an order for five iPhone 17 Pro units along with a few accessories, paying directly into the official iTech showroom account. However, Agarwal, pretending to assist, requested Singh send him the payment screenshot. Using this screenshot, the fraudster impersonated Singh, coordinated with the showroom, and arranged the dispatch of two iPhone 17 units and eight iPhone 16 Pro units—not to Singh’s shop, but to a store in Madhyamgram.

Suspicious, Singh contacted the iTech showroom and discovered that the consignment had already been dispatched elsewhere, confirming he had fallen victim to a calculated scam. An intensive investigation by Bhowanipore Police Station, spanning 15 to 20 days, ultimately led to the identification of the prime accused, a resident of Bengal’s Nadia. Police sources revealed that Agarwal had been carrying out similar frauds across multiple states, using the same modus operandi. He has been arrested from Haryana.

The investigators traced him through a single phone number used to contact Singh. Notably, the accused never accepted funds directly; instead, he routed payments through multiple bank accounts to disguise the transactions. Once he had diverted the money, he arranged for the iPhones and accessories to be delivered to other shops. The owners of these shops, unknowingly involved, transferred the money through different accounts, which Agarwal then used to purchase goods and later sell elsewhere, converting the proceeds into cash.