Know senior citizens in Mumbai? Warn them against men posing as bank officials, two were duped of Rs61K

The fraudster called the woman, saying her bank account and debit card had been blocked. He said he needed her card number and the CVV number to unblock both

A retired couple from Andheri (West) were duped of Rs61,000 by a fraudster who posed as a bank official on Wednesday.

The police’s cybercrime detection capabilities have to increase exponentially, said former director general of police, D Sivanandan. (HT File)

Police said the 73-year-old man and his 64-year-old wife live at Four Bungalows.

The fraudster called the woman around 5.30 pm, saying her bank account and debit card had been blocked. He said he needed her card number and the CVV number to unblock both.

The woman told police she was alarmed and so gave him this information. She also gave him the one time password that she received on her mobile phone.

However, the cybercriminal added that the woman needed to give him a guarantor before he could unblock the card.

He said she could ask her husband to be the guarantor, as all he needed to do was furnish his card details too. Still not suspecting anything amiss, the woman did as she was told.

The couple told police that they got four text messages from their bank informing them that the sum had been withdrawn from their account.

“Banks constantly try to make their customers aware of such fraudsters by sending them SMSes and emails. However, people are still gullible,” Sivanandan told HT.

He added that television could be a good medium for banks to reach out to citizens and ask them to be vigilant.

“The police’s cybercrime detection capabilities have to increase exponentially. Stringent action must be taken against offenders,” added.