28 Cyber Frauds Hit Bhopal In One Day, Victims Lose More Than ₹29 Lakh

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The state capital saw 28 cyber fraud cases in a single day, with residents losing more than Rs 29 lakh to a range of online scams. Victims included students, professionals, factory workers and senior citizens.

Fraudsters allegedly used credit card upgrades, electricity bill warnings, fake jobs, online tasks, traffic challans and fraudulent applications to dupe residents.

Several cases involved credit cards. In Chunabhatti, Akanksha Agrawal lost Rs 68,000 after a caller posing as a bank employee offered to increase her credit limit.

In Shahpura, Anshuman Singh lost Rs 50,000 after opening a link related to his RBL card, while teacher Ruby Jain lost Rs 50,000 after sharing an OTP while attempting to redeem card points.

Senior citizens were also targeted. A 74-year-old retired professor, Rashmi Dwivedi, lost Rs 81,000 after opening an APK file sent in the name of a smart-meter service.

Retired LIC employee Santosh Sarathe lost Rs 4.29 lakh after opening a WhatsApp file following a Facebook advertisement for a pension card.

In another case, Jagmohan Vishwakarma lost Rs 3 lakh through UPI after his SIM stopped working. Saurabh Shukla lost Rs 34,500 after downloading an OTT-related application, while Ankush Bansal lost Rs 2.26 lakh after opening a traffic challan link.

Fraudsters also used fake employment and online task offers. Tejendra Singh transferred Rs 1.25 lakh through three accounts after being offered Telegram-based tasks. CA student Subrat Singh lost Rs 34,000, while Chirag Sewani paid Rs 1.56 lakh for a promised Tata Motors job.

In Koh-e-Fiza, 79-year-old Shaheen Parveen lost Rs 1.49 lakh during a video call over a senior citizen card. Ruchi Gupta lost Rs 1.44 lakh during a fraudulent clothing return video call.