Mumbai: Woman loses Rs 1.51L to man pretending to be bank staff

A 32-year-old woman, the wife of a Thane civic employee, lost Rs 1.51 lakh to debit card fraud, after a man called her pretending to be a bank employee and managed to get her debit card details. No arrests have been made so far.

A 32-year-old woman, the wife of a Thane civic employee, lost Rs 1.51 lakh to debit card fraud, after a man called her pretending to be a bank employee and managed to get her debit card details. No arrests have been made so far.

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The police said the accused kept in touch with the woman for four days during which time he made various online purchases using her debit card.

The suspect called the woman Harsha Hinwar first on August 14 around 4pm. He told her he was calling from the State Bank of India. He told Hinwar he needed her debit card details, which was a routine bank procedure. After he managed to convince Hinwar of his credibility, he used the debit card number for online purchases, the police said.

“Once he successfully made the first transaction, he contacted Hinwar again several times until August 17 and cheated her out of Rs 1.51 lakh,” said Kishor Shinde, assistant inspector at the Virar police station.

“We will also take the help of the cyber crime department in the case because it is a debit card fraud. Our investigations are on to establish the identity of the person who called Hinwar,” said another officer adding that they were in the process of ascertaining under whose name the mobile phone was registered.