A 35-year-old woman from Vasai lost ₹43,900 in an online fraud within two days after she placed an order for a ₹359-burger.
Though the incident took place on January 31, the complaint was registered with the Manickpur police only on August 16.
The complainant contacted on the customer care number of a food delivery provider online after her order for a burger worth ₹359 was cancelled by a Vasai restaurant. The police said the number was fake and was not of the customer care.
“After contacting on the customer care number, she spoke to a man who identified himself as Deepak Sharma. He claimed that the refund for the order was being delayed owing to a problem in the server and asked for her bank details to transfer the refund at the earliest. He then sent her a link and told her to open it for the refund process, but when the link did not open, the caller asked her to forward the link back to him,” said senior inspector Rajendra Kamble from Manickpur police station. After she forwarded the link, he disconnected the call.
The woman then received messages from her bank, which stated that ₹10,000 was debited from her account in two simultaneous transactions of ₹5,000 each. “She again called on the customer care number and spoke to Sharma, who said the amount was debited owing to a technical glitch and assured her that he will credit ₹10,000 and the ₹359 debited earlier for the order into her account,” said Kamble.
{{/usCountry}}The woman then received messages from her bank, which stated that ₹10,000 was debited from her account in two simultaneous transactions of ₹5,000 each. “She again called on the customer care number and spoke to Sharma, who said the amount was debited owing to a technical glitch and assured her that he will credit ₹10,000 and the ₹359 debited earlier for the order into her account,” said Kamble.
{{/usCountry}}However, the next day, the woman lost ₹33,900 from her bank account. She then tweeted to the food-delivery provider and an authorised customer representative called her and returned her the ₹359 which was debited for the food order.
“The woman then sent an email to her bank, but their reply came only on August 11. They refused to help her as she gave all the bank details to the accused, the complainant told us. She then approached us and we filed a case against Sharma under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology Act, 2000. The cyber cell is probing the matter,” said Kamble.
Such links are sent by fraudsters usually to hack into phones and access a person’s data, said Kamble.
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