Panchkula man loses ₹45,000 to online fraud

The 72-year-old was told by fraudsters to download an app on the pretext of activating an e-wallet

A 72-year-old man was defrauded of ₹45,000 after a fraudster hacked his phone on the pretext of activating his Paytm account.

Complainant Subhash Puri, retired from a public sector undertaking and resident of Sector 21, told the police that his wife received a message on December 26 on her phone stating that her Paytm KYC had been suspended and her account would be blocked within 24 hours. The message also had a phone number in the name of the Paytm office.

Police said the complainant called on the given number, wherein a person who called himself Amit Mishra on the phone, identified himself as a Paytm representative, and told him to deposit ₹1 through his SBI debit card. “I did as he said, and then he asked me if i had another card, because two transactions are required for activating Paytm accounts. So, I used my wife’s debit card and ₹2 were added in my wife’s Paytm account and it was activated,” the complainant told the police.

Then the complainant told the trickster that his own Paytm account was also disabled and sought help from him. “He asked me to install an application ‘Anydesk’ in mine and my wife’s cellphones. I did not know features of the application and fell prey to his machinations, as the trickster then hacked our cellphones,” said the complainant.

Thereon, the complainant got his bank cards blocked and submitted a police complaint.

The ASI said an investigation is underway and a cyber cell team is reviewing the fraudulent transactions through the phone number and gateway used by the trickster. A case under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Sector 5 police station.