61-year-old woman loses nearly ₹1 lakh in attempt to report a rash BEST bus driver

A 61-year-old woman who wanted to lodge a complaint with the BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) Undertaking about the alleged rash driving by one of its drivers ended up losing nearly ₹1 lakh to cyber fraudsters

A 61-year-old woman who wanted to lodge a complaint with the BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) Undertaking about the alleged rash driving by one of its drivers ended up losing nearly ₹1 lakh to cyber fraudsters.

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According to police, the woman works with a marine services firm on N M Joshi Marg in Lower Parel (West). On July 19, while going to her workplace from her Tardeo residence on a scooter, she was allegedly forced to a corner of the road due to the rash and negligent driving by a BEST bus driver.

She decided to report this incident and searched for a BEST helpline number on the internet. She got a number and narrated the incident to the person on the other end. Minutes later, she got a call wherein the caller claimed to be a representative of a consumer court and asked her to fill in the requisite information on a link to be sent by him. The caller also asked her to pay a nominal fee of ₹5 for processing her complaint.

When the woman clicked the link and submitted the details, she started getting messages and eventually lost around ₹97,666 from her bank account in six transactions, the complaint she filed with the police on Saturday said.

“She got an 11-digit number from the internet which she thought was of BEST. She dialled the number and complained about the driver and gave the vehicle number to the person who had received the call,” an officer from N M Joshi Marg police station said.

“I never thought that they [the callers] could be fraudsters. They sounded so real. I wanted to complain about a rash and negligent BEST bus driver, but became a victim of the fraud,” the complainant, who did not wish to be named, said.

Police have registered a case against unknown persons under sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act.

“We are trying to trace the accused through technical analysis. The woman spoke to fraudsters who posed as BEST and consumer court officials,” the police officer said, adding that people should take the helpline number from the website of the establishment concerned.