E-Paper
Kharghar resident loses ₹2 lakh to online fraud
A college lecturer from Kharghar lost ₹2 lakh after a caller told her bank account has been blocked.
A college lecturer from Kharghar lost ₹2 lakh after a caller told her bank account has been blocked.
Kavita Sawant, 32, received a text message on April 27 that her bank account has been blocked and she needs to contact the customer care.
When Sawant called the phone number mentioned in the text message, a man answered the call and he told her that her savings account will be frozen if she did not update her Know Your Customer (KYC) details.
The man told her she should do it immediately.
To verify if he is actually calling from the bank, she asked him her account statement. When he told her she had ₹6.5 lakh in her bank account, she believed it to be a genuine call, said the police.
Telling her she needs a new user ID, he created it for her on the call. The woman later received a message from the bank that a payee had been added to her account for transfer of funds.
After 30 minutes, the accused called her again and asked for the one time password (OTP) using which he transferred around ₹1 lakh twice.
“The accused also told her the money would be transferred to her account in six transactions. The man’s phone was switched off immediately and the woman realised it was a scam,” said an officer from Kharghar police station.
The Kharghar police have registered a case of cheating against the person under the Information Technology Act.
