A businessman from suburban Kandivali here has allegedly lost over Rs 32 lakh in an online fraud, police said on Friday. As per the police complaint, the trader received an email from a Ghana-based medical research company in June asking him to procure an organic chemical liquid, which was only available in India and assured him a good deal, an official said.

The complainant then contacted a supplier and forwarded the detailed quotation and samples to the research firm, which in turn gave a purchase order of 10 gallons of the liquid but did not pay any advance for the same, he said. However, when the trader got in touch with the supplier, he was asked to pay Rs 15 lakh as advance and was asked for more money over a period of one month, the official said.