E-Paper
Cyber scam: 3 Panchkula residents lose lakhs in 72 hrs
Police registered a case under Sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) and 318(4) (aggravated cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on August 29 and initiated an investigation
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An 86-year-old retired colonel from Sector 25 was allegedly duped of ₹1.72 lakh by cyber fraudsters posing as bank officials, in one of three fraud cases registered by the Panchkula cyber crime police in recent days. The three victims collectively lost ₹6.42 lakh in the alleged scams.
According to the registered complaint, the victim, Vijay Kumar Beri, received a message on August 4 regarding an alleged ₹90,000 transaction on his credit card. The fraudsters allegedly contacted him through a fake bank helpline and told him that the transaction was unauthorised. They offered to block his card and arrange a replacement.
Beri, who had retired as a colonel, subsequently received a new credit card. However, on August 16, he received messages regarding two unauthorised transactions of ₹51,475 and ₹30,885. He immediately contacted the bank and got his account and credit card blocked. Police registered a case under Sections 316(2) (criminal breach of trust) and 318(4) (aggravated cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on August 29 and initiated an investigation.
In another case, a 75-year-old retired district attorney of the marketing board, Meenu Mittal, a Sector 6 resident, was allegedly cheated of ₹1 lakh by a fraudster posing as an OTT platform customer-care executive.
According to the complaint, Mittal contacted a number she believed was linked to customer care after facing a problem with a channel on her television on August 22. The caller allegedly told her that there was a technical issue and asked her to install an application through a link sent to her phone. She was subsequently persuaded to make a ₹100 payment to restore the service.
About an hour later, Mittal discovered that ₹1 lakh had been withdrawn from her bank account through three PhonePe transactions of ₹50,000, ₹40,000 and ₹10,000. All three payments were allegedly made to the same UPI ID. Police registered a case on August 27 under Sections 316(2), 318(4) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the BNS.
In the third case, a 56-year-old, Sector 20 resident, Shashi Bhushan Gupta, a contractor, was allegedly duped of ₹3.70 lakh by fraudsters posing as bank officials. The accused allegedly contacted Gupta on August 23, claiming that his credit card needed to be updated, and asked him to join a WhatsApp video call for verification.
During the alleged verification process, the fraudsters obtained access to his banking details. Within 35 to 40 minutes, Gupta received a message indicating that his fixed deposit had been prematurely withdrawn. He rushed to the bank and found that ₹2.50 lakh had been withdrawn from his account, while another ₹1.20 lakh had been charged to his credit card.
Police registered a case on August 28 under Sections 316(2), 318(4) and 61(2) of the BNS and launched an investigation into the alleged fraud.
