Man falls for fake PMC customer care trap, duped of Rs1.41 lakh

PUNE: A Mohammadwadi resident was allegedly duped of Rs1,41,000 after he called a fake Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) customer care number listed on the internet

PUNE: A Mohammadwadi resident was allegedly duped of Rs1,41,000 after he called a fake Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) customer care number listed on the internet.

A Mohammadwadi resident was allegedly duped of Rs1,41,000 after he called a fake Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) customer care number listed on the internet. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

The victim, Mahadev alias Madhav Kharat (44), filed a complaint with Kondhwa police station and an FIR was registered under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 66 (c), (d) of the Information Technology Act on Friday night.

Kharat stated in his complaint that he was trying to pay municipal tax from his mobile phone and paid ₹1,00,000 initially. For the next payment, the online site was showing technical error.

“I browsed on the internet and called a PMC customer care number. The person on the other side asked me to download AnyDesk software that gave him remote access to my phone. The caller hacked my phone and transferred Rs1,41,000 from my account into different accounts,” he said in his complaint.

A police officer privy to the case said that cybercriminals advertise their contact numbers on the internet by paying charges to display them as customer care numbers of well-known e-commerce giants or travel websites.

“People search for customer care numbers online instead of searching on official websites and become victims of cybercrime,” a police official said. Inspector S Babar of Kondhwa police said that probe is on to locate the caller.