38-year-old loses ₹3.54 lakh to online fraud

A 38-year-old man fell victim to an online fraud and lost ₹354,767 from two bank accounts linked to an e-wallet platform.

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According to the complaint filed with Navghar police, Pawan Kumar Thakur, who runs a small steel utensils buffing unit in Bhayander, was supposed to transfer the money to the accounts of his employees, who have returned to their hometowns in view of Covid-19 pandemic. After he faced some difficulty in transferring the amount, he looked up the number of the e-wallet company’s customer care centre and called on the number. The fraudster, posing as an executive, asked him to download an application on his phone and transferred the amount via multiple transactions.

“We have registered a case under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act against unknown persons and are investigating the matter,” said an officer from Navghar police station.