Man with vision impairment loses ₹6.40 lakh to ‘KYC update’ con

Soon after submitting the documents to the bank, he received a call from an unknown person who asked him to click on a link he sent, and as he clicked on the link, he lost his money

MUMBAI: The police on Sunday registered a case against unknown frauds after a 48-year-old man with vision impairment fell victim to the ‘KYC (Know Your Customer) update fraud’ and revealed his personal details, which made him lose ₹6,40 lakh.

Man with vision impairment loses ₹6.40 lakh to ‘KYC update’ con

The complainant, Sameer Sampat Chavan, 48, a resident of Worli, said that he physically submitted his documents to the Worli branch of Axis Bank and claimed that while his documents, were still lying in the branch, his details were updated in the core banking system, indicating that some unknown bank employee leaked his details.

Soon after submitting the documents to the bank, he received a call from an unknown person who asked him to click on a link he sent, and as he clicked on the link, he lost his money.

Chavan lost his vision after his retina was damaged, and he required help from all kinds of documentation. He had approached the Worli branch of Axis Bank in December 2023 for a KYC update of his wife Savita, said police sources.

While his wife’s KYC was updated, he was asked to update his own KYC. “As he did not have the necessary documents, the bank employees helped him download the application on his phone, asking him to update KYC at home when he had all the relevant documents.

However, he could not fill in the form on his mobile phone and visited the branch on January 12, but the KYC update could not be done that day. “The next day, on January 13, he got a call from somebody who told him he had called to update his KYC and asked him to visit the bank and submit his documents to the bank staff. On January 15, again, he got a call from the same person saying his KYC was updated,” said the police officer.

Soon after, he received a call from an Axis Bank staff member, who asked him to come to the branch with the latest copy of his Aadhar card, claiming that the KYC update could not be done online.

On January 22, he again got a call from the fraud, who told him that his KYC was updated, but to confirm his E-mail ID, he sent him a link and asked him to click on it.

“After clicking the link, the complainant got a message that he had lost ₹4,82,000 from his bank account. After that, he visited the bank to fill in a dispute form, when he enquired with the branch manager, he realised that the bank had not updated his E-mail ID. While the goof up about the KYC update continued, on March 12, his credit card had a debit transaction of ₹1.98 lakh,” said the police officer.

The day he had visited the branch first – on January 12, a new pin was generated for his account by some unknown person. “Against this backdrop, the complainant suspects that his details submitted to the bank were leaked to the frauds, which resulted in his loss of ₹6.40 lakh,” said a police officer.

The unknown accused has been booked under sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and under sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

An Axis Bank spokesperson said, “As a responsible institution, Axis Bank follows strictly defined processes for customer service requests . There is a complaint which has been received by the bank and the matter is under investigation . We will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities in resolving this case at the earliest.”