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Bengaluru techie duped of ₹2.8 cr as scammers gift cloning-app-embedded smartphone: Report
The Bengaluru police have obtained crucial leads in the case and said that they will apprehend the suspects soon.
In a shocking case of cybercrime, scammers posing as bank officials duped a techie in Bengaluru’s Whitefield of ₹2.8 crore by gifting him a smartphone equipped with a cloning app, reported The Times of India. The victim is identified as a 60-year-old man , filed a complaint with the Whitefield CEN police.
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How the scam unfolded?
According to the report, the victim received a call on November 27, 2024, from a man called Rohit Jain, who called himself a representative of a bank. The caller informed the techie that he is from a bank where he holds a credit card and as a gesture for earning a substantial number of reward points, the bank was gifting him a smartphone.
On December 1, the victim received a courier bearing the bank’s branding. As promised, there was a mobile phone inside the courier, accompanied by instructions to insert his SIM card and start using the device. Trusting the sender, he began using the phone. However, on December 5, during a visit to the bank, the man discovered that his fixed deposits worth ₹2.8 crore had been liquidated and the money withdrawn.
The investigating officer told publication that the scammers had embedded a cloning app and other software in the gifted phone, allowing them to gain complete control of the person's device that was gifted by them. They then changed the mobile number linked to his bank account, giving them unauthorized access. Using this control, the fraudsters siphoned off the fixed deposit amount.
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The police have obtained crucial leads in the case and said that they will apprehend the suspects soon. This incident highlights the sophisticated tactics used by cyber criminals and serves as a stark reminder of the need for vigilance when dealing with unsolicited offers, especially those involving personal and financial information.
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