‘Bank officials’ get Mumbai residents to share card details, cheat them of ₹1.18 lakh | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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‘Bank officials’ get Mumbai residents to share card details, cheat them of 1.18 lakh

Hindustan Times | ByJayprakash S Naidu, Mumbai
Oct 17, 2017 12:16 AM IST

Fraudsters get homemaker and airline employee to share their credit and debit card details on the pretexts of unblocking it or redeeming points

In separate cases at Andheri (East), a doctor’s wife and an administration officer with a private airline allegedly lost Rs1.18 lakh to cyber fraudsters who posed as bank officials on phone and got them to share their credit and debit card details on the pretexts of unblocking a card and redeeming points.

FIRs have been registered in both the cases under section 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code for impersonation and cheating respectively.(HT)
FIRs have been registered in both the cases under section 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code for impersonation and cheating respectively.(HT)

According to the police, on September 27, a 26-year-old homemaker received a phone call while she was at home. Her husband is a doctor in a private hospital and was at work at the time. A fraudster posing as an official from her bank said that her ATM card was blocked and that he would require her 16-digit card number and CVV to unblock it. She also gave her one-time password, after which the fraudster withdrew Rs76,000 from her bank account, the police said.

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Card frauds on the rise

The number of card-fraud cases registered till September this year has already surpassed the number of cases registered in the whole of 2016, official statistics reveal.

According to the cyberpolice, 464 cases have been registered between January and September this year, while 423 cases were registered throughout 2016. The detection rate, which refers to when an arrest has been made in a case, has come down with just 34 cases detected this year while 54 were detected in 2016. In 2015, there were 320 card frauds and only 36 were detected.

For example, a big card-cloning racket was busted by the Bandra police this May. The police charge-sheeted eight men and it was learnt that they had cheated 1,028 customers, but only 40 FIRs were registered as the remaining people had got a refund from the bank and did not file a case.

Apart from card cloning, there were many cases of vishing, in which fraudsters pose as bank officials on the phone and trick you into sharing your card details.

Former DGP of Maharashtra and an expert on cybercrime, D Sivanandhan told HT, “Many cases go unreported so in reality the figure could be higher. The fraudsters are also getting more tech savvy than the police by the day. Extensive training is necessary to keep the police a step ahead of cybercriminals.”

While IPS officer-turned-lawyer YP Singh told HT, “These frauds should be investigated by banks with the help of the police as we move towards a cashless economy.”

According to the police, the woman’s brother-in-law’s wife overheard the conversation and asked her who was on the call. When the victim told what had happened, her relative realised it was a fraud, snatched the phone from the victim and yelled at the fraudster who immediately cut the call.

In the second incident on September 28, a 44-year-old administration officer with a private airline received a phone call from a person posing as a customer care official of her bank, police said.

The fraudster told her that her credit card points could be redeemed to her bank account for which she needs to give him her details, the police said.

She gave her credit card as well as her debit card details after which the man made seven transactions, withdrawing Rs 42,400.

FIRs have been registered in both the cases under section 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code for impersonation and cheating respectively. The police also added sections 66 C and 66D of the Information Technology Act for identity theft and personation using computer resource.

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