E-Paper
88-year-old Panchkula man loses ₹22 lakh to cyber criminals
The victim, Balbir Singh Atri, a resident of Sector 15, Panchkula, told police that he was a practising advocate and had retired as joint secretary from Punjab government
An 88-year-old man, looking to get refund for a cancelled air ticket, fell prey to cyber criminals who defrauded him of ₹22 lakh.
The victim, Balbir Singh Atri, a resident of Sector 15, Panchkula, told police that he was a practising advocate and had retired as joint secretary from Punjab government.
His grandson lived in Bengaluru, where he was working in a private company. In September, his grandson got a promotion at work, so he wanted to pay him a visit.
For this, on September 13, he booked an IndiGo flight for September 19 against a payment of ₹11,989.
Balbir told police that on September 13 itself, he got a message from Cleartrip that his booking was not successful due to payment failure. However, the money was deducted from his bank account. Therefore, he looked up the website’s customer care e-mail address on Google and contacted them for a refund.
Balbir said the next day, he received a phone call from one Tushar Singla, a representative of Cleartrip. But as Balbir suspected his identity, the caller made him talk to another person, who claimed to be his senior, Vikas Kumar.
They asked him to download their app for the refund and upload the required information. For this, he was sent a link on WhatsApp. Balbir said he accessed the link and filled in the sought information that mainly consisted of bank account details. But soon after, ₹22 lakh were debited from his account.
Police have lodged an FIR under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code against the fraudsters and launched a probe to trace them.
