Frauds posing as airline staff dupes Japanese woman of ₹1 lakh

According to the police officials, the woman, who had come from Osaka in Japan to Mumbai, had misplaced her bag with a similar one. She looked for the airline’s customer care number on the internet and contacted a number.Subsequently, in three transactions she lost ₹1 lakh from her bank account

Mumbai: A 45-year-old Japanese national reportedly lost ₹1 lakh to cyber frauds, who posed as airline company executives.

Frauds posing as airline staff dupes Japanese woman of ₹1 lakh

According to the police officials, the woman, who had come from Osaka in Japan to Mumbai, had misplaced her bag with a similar one. She looked for the airline’s customer care number on the internet and contacted a number. She was asked to download remote access software AnyDesk. She followed the instructions and transferred ₹5 using her credit card as service charges to use the software. Subsequently, in three transactions she lost ₹1 lakh from her bank account.

Mika Pravin Kumar, 45, who stays in Anand in Gujarat, on Saturday came from Osaka to Mumbai with her mother, Okiko. Mika is married to Pravin Kumar R, a dentist from Anand in Gujarat.

She said, “I picked up a bag from the airport, which looked similar to my bag. Later, I stayed in a nearby hotel so that I could visit the T-2 Terminal of the airport the next day and exchange my bag. However, nobody from the airlines was present at the airport. After waiting for a long time, I was advised to file a complaint with the police.”

“We then searched online for the airlines’ contact number and browsed its website,” she added. She got a number from the website and dialled the number.

“We were told to contact another number to file a complaint related to the lost bag. When contacted, they told me to download AnyDesk to check the status of my baggage. After that they told me to pay ₹5 for accessing the application. I told them I can pay the money via UPI but they insisted on paying the money only via credit card. I negotiated for over 45 minutes, but later realised there was no point, as I needed my luggage back,” Mika said.

After she entered her credit card details in the application, ₹1 lakh was debited from her account in three transactions.

“We have registered a case under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and sections 66 C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. We also went to the airport and managed to get her bag back. We are searching for the accused through technical details,” a police officer from Vile Parle police station said.