Cyber fraudsters cheat constable of ₹1.57 lakh

A 57-year-old police constable was recently cheated by cyber fraudsters to the tune of ₹1.47 lakhs. The constable contacted the customer care number to discontinue

A 57-year-old police constable was recently cheated by cyber fraudsters to the tune of ₹1.47 lakhs. The constable contacted the customer care number to discontinue the credit card but instead resulted in online shopping by fraudsters of around ₹1.47 lakhs. The credit card was used seven times for making online purchases through two different apps.

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According to the police, the complainant, Shivaji Dinkar Jadhav, 57, resides in Chunabhatti and is posted as a police constable with JJ Marg police station. Jadhav has a saving account in a nationalised bank and also had a credit card, which had remained unused. According to a police officer, Jadhav decided to discontinue the credit card to avoid unwanted bills.

On January 5, he called the customer care number of the bank and asked them to discontinue the credit card. On January 6, Jadhav received a call from a woman at 5:30pm. The woman confirmed his request for discontinuing the credit card, but within five minutes he received another call from an unknown number. The caller identified himself to be another executive of the bank and questioned whether Jadhav wanted to discontinue the card which he confirmed. At 9pm Jadhav received seven messages about online shopping. Initially, Jadhav ignored the messages as the amounts were not debited from his saving account. But the next day when he visited the bank he found that the amounts had been debited against his credit card.

The police said the fraudster had used the credit card seven times for shopping through MobiKwik and Paytm.

“We have registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian penal code and Information Technology Act. We are gathering details on the basis of the online app from which the shopping was done. We suspect the customer care number on which the constable made a call by searching on the internet was not authentic. We are further investigating the matter,” said a police officer.