E-Paper
IAS officer taken for a ride
CREDIT CARD frauds are on the rise in the state capital. And strangely enough, senior IAS officers are at the receiving end of the fraud. On Sunday, a senior IAS officer PL Loi, principal secretary, Science and Technology, UP government, informed the police that he had been duped by some youths who masqueraded as the employee of ICICI bank.
CREDIT CARD frauds are on the rise in the state capital. And strangely enough, senior IAS officers are at the receiving end of the fraud.
On Sunday, a senior IAS officer PL Loi, principal secretary, Science and Technology, UP government, informed the police that he had been duped by some youths who masqueraded as the employee of ICICI bank.
According to the FIR registered in this connection, some youths arrived at Loi’s 114A/3 residence in Gomtinagar on Friday and identified themselves as representatives of ICICI bank.
One of the youths introduced himself as Shobhit Baghel and started a discussion on credit cards. During this discussion he checked on the credit card that Loi had and apparently advised him to get his card renewed.
An unsuspecting Loi fell for the trap when Shobhit told him that he would get the renewal done for free. Convinced that the youths were from a reputed bank, Loi reportedly gave his card to Shobhit. On Saturday, the bank informed Loi that about Rs 40, 774 had been withdrawn from his account.
Loi was stumped. He ordered that his account be closed immediately and informed the Gomtinagar police.
This is the second time an IAS officer has been cheated through credit card. Earlier, another senior IAS officer Rohit Nandan found his ATM account hacked and a substantial sum withdrawn.
Interestingly, three days back Jai Prakash Verma, a trader in Bazar Khala was also duped by some youths who identified themselves as employees of ICICI bank.
They told Verma that they could get his silver card changed to gold card. Verma agreed and discovered later that purchases worth Rs 17,000 had been made from his ATM card by those youths.
Significantly, the police have no clue how to check such frauds. Circle Officer of Gomtinagar circle, Man Singh Chauhan, on being asked about the progress made simply said, “I will check up and let you know. So far I have no information on any development on this front.”
