Mumbai man dials ‘RBI helpline’ to change demonetised currency, loses ₹48,000

Realising that he had been duped, Vijaykumar Marwa approached the Malad police station. An FIR was filed on January 6.

Calling a number that came up as “Reserve Bank of India (RBI) helpline” after a web search cost a 74-year-old Malad resident ₹48,000.

Mumbai resident Vijaykumar Marwa wanted to find out how to exchange his demonetised currency but became victim of online fraud. (Getty Images/ Representative Image)

Last month, while cleaning his home, Vijaykumar Marwa found ₹7,000 in demonetised currency. Wanting to know how to get it exchanged, Marwa searched for the RBI helpline number on his mobile phone and called one of the fake numbers that showed up.

Promising to deposit the notes in the RBI office, the fraudster asked Marwa for his bank details “to deposit the money to the account”. The man obtained the credit card details, along with the one-time password (OTP), and within minutes transferred ₹48,000 from Marwa’s bank account.

Realising that he had been duped, Marwa approached the Malad police station. An FIR was filed on January 6. This, according to experts, is vishing, where fraudsters, posing as financial institutions, put up their numbers online.

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Balsing Rajput, superintendent, cyber, Maharashtra, said, “Cyber fraudsters have adopted this new technique lately. The search engine should verify if the numbers are genuine or not. They need to correct it. We have written to them once and we will remind them again. People, too, should be cautious and only call on numbers displayed on the official websites. We plan to set up a new anti-phishing cell to tackle all types of phishing, vishing and spam cases across the state.”