Pune woman loses ₹1.96L in cyber fraud

The victim, identified as Yashshri Suresh Pathak, had initially reached out to the well-known e-commerce platform, in an effort to claim a refund for garments she had purchased on October 8

Pune: A 29-year-old woman from Parvati fell victim to a cyber fraud scheme while attempting to secure a refund of ₹3,369 from an e-commerce portal. The incident highlights the growing threat of online scams targeting unsuspecting consumers.

Allegedly a fake customer representative asked her to download a mobile application and accessed all her bank details. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC)

The victim, identified as Yashshri Suresh Pathak, had initially reached out to the well-known e-commerce platform, in an effort to claim a refund for garments she had purchased on October 8.

According to her complaint, after contacting the customer support team, she was informed that her refund would be processed, but a minor verification process was required to facilitate the transaction. Allegedly a fake customer representative asked her to download a mobile application and accessed all her bank details.

As per instruction given by a representative, she did what he asked her to do and in two transactions fraudsters withdrew ₹1.96 lakh from her bank account.

It was only when she received a series of unauthorised transaction alerts that she realised that she had been scammed. The victim immediately filed a complaint with the local police, who have now initiated an investigation into the matter.

Vijay Khomane, police inspector (Crime) at Parvati Police station said, “The victim is an engineer and was duped by an unknown caller pretending that he was representative of an e-commerce company.’’

A case was registered at Parvati police station on October 14 under IPC sections 419, 420, and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.