Woman duped of ₹1.2 lakh on pretext of updating KYC for e-wallet

Gurugram: A 35-year-old woman was duped of around ₹1.20 lakh after an unidentified caller asked her to update her ‘know your customer’ (KYC) details on an e-wallet

Gurugram: A 35-year-old woman was duped of around ₹1.20 lakh after an unidentified caller asked her to update her ‘know your customer’ (KYC) details on an e-wallet mobile application, the police said on Thursday.

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The woman had received a message informing her that if she did not update the KYC, her e-wallet would be blocked, the police said.

According to the police, Komal Baluja, the victim, is a resident of Golf Course Road, Sector 42. The incident took place on November 7 last year, when she received a message on her phone asking her to contact a number to update the KYC.

In the police complaint, Baluja alleged that she called the number to enquire about the issue. The suspect allegedly said that her previous KYC verification was not valid and she had to go through the process again. He asked her to download a mobile application called “quick support” and follow the instructions. The victim then allegedly received an identification number on her phone and entered it on the mobile application.

“Immediately, some notifications started popping up on my cell phone screen with option of ‘allow’ or ‘deny’. He said I should quickly press the option ‘allow’ and I clicked it,” she said.

The suspect then allegedly asked her to transfer some money to her e-wallet account to complete the process of KYC verification. The victim allegedly entered her bank account details on the application and when she entered the PIN of her debit card, ₹50,000 were deducted from her account, the police said.

When she asked the suspect about the deduction, he allegedly told her to not worry and again enter the PIN of her debit card in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) section of the e-wallet to get the money back. However, ₹20,000 were allegedly deducted from her account again.

The victim, in her first information report (FIR), alleged that when she checked her bank account, a total ₹1.2 lakh had been deducted. Her e-wallet application showed that ₹1.46 lakh was in the wallet. She alleged that the suspect had locked the application and she could not access the e-wallet.

A police official privy to the investigation said, “We have registered a complaint and are verifying the claims of the woman. The suspect is yet to be identified.”

A case was registered against unidentified person under sections 379 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code at Sushant Lok police station on Wednesday.