Cyber fraudster dupes sound designer of ₹5.99 lakh

A 69-year-old sound designer, Hitendra Ghosh, was recently duped by a cyber fraudster to the tune of ₹5.99 lakh. Following the incident, Ghosh lodged a complaint

A 69-year-old sound designer, Hitendra Ghosh, was recently duped by a cyber fraudster to the tune of ₹5.99 lakh. Following the incident, Ghosh lodged a complaint with Juhu police station, based on which a first information report (FIR) was filed against the unknown fraudster on July 15.

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Ghosh is a two-time national award winner for best audiography for Ek Pal (1985) and Game (2011). He also won a national award for best sound recording in 1978 for the movie Junoon.

According to the statement, “During the coronavirus-induced lockdown, he wanted to transfer money from one account to another, but was unable to personally go to the bank. He then searched for the customer care number and called up the number on July 7. The person who answered his call introduced himself as Rahul Kumar working as a bank’s customer care executive.”

A police officer said, “Ghosh shared all his bank account details with him, and later the accused asked him to share the CVV number of his debit card which he refused to share. After this, the accused made another attempt to dupe him and instructed him to download an application called AnyDesk.”

Ghosh followed the instruction, thus giving the accused access to his device. Soon after that, he lost around ₹8 Lakh in a series of eight transactions worth ₹99,999, said officers.

The sound engineer approached his bank and managed to recover ₹2 lakh while efforts are being made to recover the rest. Ghosh then approached Juhu police station and lodged a complaint.

Pandharinath Wavhal, senior inspector, Juhu police station, said, “We have registered the offence against unknown cyber fraudster and are investigating the case.”

The case has been registered under sections 419 (personation), 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information Technology Act.

“We are advising everyone not to share bank account related details with any unknown caller or download any applications (which the caller instruct you to download) on your phone,” Wavhal said.