Elderly women lose ₹10.5L to cyber frauds

Two elderly women in Mumbai were cheated by cyber frauds to the tune of ?10.5 lakh using different modus operandi, with one targeted after receiving a text message saying her electricity bill was unpaid and the other losing money when trying to book a hospital appointment online.

Mumbai: On Saturday, two elderly women in the city were cheated by cyber frauds to the tune of ₹10.5 lakh using different modus operandi.

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In the first case, an Andheri-based homemaker was targeted by cyber frauds who made seven fraudulent transactions amounting ₹9.48 lakh in four minutes. According to the police the victim identified as Usha MS, 76, had received a text message saying that her electricity bill was unpaid, and her power supply would be disconnected the same night for non-payment of the dues. Oshiwara police officials said the victim lost her savings which she had gotten after retirement.

Usha, who was worried that the electricity will be disconnected, called up a number to inquire about the text message that she received about the disconnection of the power supply despite paying the bill. Usha was then asked by the fraud to download a remote access app (Quick Support) and pay ₹100 to verify the payment that she had claimed she made. Through the app the frauds got the victim’s banking details. Within the next four minutes, the frauds made seven transfers from Usha’s account.

Usha stays in Pune but was visiting her son who stays at Lokhandwala Complex in Andheri West when she was targeted by the frauds. In her complaint, Usha said, “I was told that I had not made the electricity payment and asked to download an app on my mobile and made an ₹100 payment to verify my claims. The fraud told me that the payment would be updated in a few minutes. However, just four minutes later, I began receiving text alerts on my mobile. The first fraudulent transaction was carried out for ₹2 lakh. Following this, six more transactions were made where I ended up losing ₹9.48 lakh that I had saved from the job before my retirement,” Usha told the police.

On her last visit, the doctor gave her a mobile number to book appointments with the hospital. On April 14, when Gokhe called up the number, the person who responded asked her whether she wanted to book an appointment. The fraud then sent her a link on her WhatsApp and asked her to fill in the details and send ₹5 to book the appointment. When she sent the payment through Google Pay, the transaction did not go through. The caller then told Gokhe to download an app and pay through the app. Gokhe said that she did what she was told but the payment did not go through the app either.

“Gokhe then switched off her phone. She then sent a message to the doctor that their appointment had not been booked. The doctor then sent her another number which was not reachable, which she informed the doctor,” said the police officer from Samta Nagar police station.

Officers said that Gokhe then received a phone call from the hospital informing her that her appointment had been booked for that evening. The next day Gokhe received two messages from her bank informing her that ₹98,000 had been debited from her account.

“Despite repeated warnings issued by the power supply distribution company, people fall prey to the fraudsters’ trick. We have sought details from the bank of the accounts to which the money got credited after siphoning it from the victim’s account,” said a police officer of the Oshiwara police station.

“We have booked the unidentified men and are tracing them,” said an officer from the Samta Nagar police station.