Another physio falls prey to fraudsters posing as army personnel, loses ₹1.17 lakh

The fraudster then asked Mishra to put his PIN and put down ₹70,000 in the payment option and said that he would receive the payment and hung up.

Mumbai: A third physiotherapist has fallen prey to cyber fraudsters in the past one month by people claiming to be from the army. On Friday, a 40-year-old physiotherapist approached the Mumbai police after he was cheated of ₹1.17 lakh by imposters who lured him by telling him that 15 Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel needed physiotherapy.

Mishra received a message from his bank that three transactions were made from his account and ₹1.17 lakh were debited.

According to the victim, Dr Krishna Kumar Mishra, who has a physiotherapy clinic at Borivali West, he received a call on June 17 from a woman who introduced herself as Shukla, an employee with CISF at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport. She told Mishra that 22 personnel from the CISF needed physiotherapy for their back and shoulder pain.

Mishra then told her that he would charge ₹700 per person per session to treat their back pain and ₹500 for shoulder pain, the total of which would come to ₹77,000 per session. The woman then sent Mishra a list of 22 names on his WhatsApp and said that the Director General of CISF will talk to him about the payment.

Mishra said that after a few minutes he received a call from a man who told him that he would make the payment through an online transaction. He then asked Mishra to open his Google pay app and said that he would help Mishra through the process. He then made a video call to Mishra and asked him to open the Google pay app and click the option of regular payment. He then asked Mishra to click on credit card payment and put down the number that Mishra was given by the fraudster.

The fraudster then asked Mishra to put his PIN and put down ₹70,000 in the payment option and said that Mishra would receive the payment and hung up.

After a few hours, Mishra received a message from his bank that three transactions were made from his account and ₹1.17 lakh were debited.

Mishra called up the number through which he had received the video call but there was no reply. The number was then switched off. Mishra on Saturday approached the Borivali police and registered an FIR against unidentified people.

“Mishra had received the call on June 17 and he came to the police station on Saturday which is almost a month late. We have registered the complaint and are tracing the number,” said a police officer from Borivali police station.

On July 5, a Malad-based physiotherapist was duped by unidentified men pretending to be army officials. The victim identified as Natalia Gomes (29) was contacted by a man named Shrikant Sharma who requested 22 sessions of physiotherapy and also demanded sessions for 15 of his colleagues. Gomes ended up losing ₹1.50 lakh, according to the Malad police.

On June 25, a 24-year-old physiotherapist approached the Vile Parle police after he was conned by two men impersonating Indian Army officers to the tune of ₹1 lakh. The men asked the physio to pay the amount due to him from the army as verification which would be refunded to him. However, after the transfer was made, the men were not reachable.