Fraudsters Siphon Off Over ₹8 Lakh In Multiple Online Scams Across Bhopal

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Cyber criminals duped several city residents of more than Rs 8 lakh in separate incidents involving fake loan offers, cloned credit cards, QR code fraud and mobile hacking.

Police have registered cases against unidentified suspects and launched an investigation. In the first incident, Harshita Thakur, a resident of Bajaria, received a phone call from a person offering to arrange a loan.

The fraudster allegedly convinced her to transfer nearly Rs 29,000 in several instalments to different accounts on the pretext of processing the loan, which was never arranged.

In another case, businessman Hari Prakash of Piplani discovered that Rs 3.94 lakh had been withdrawn from his bank account. During inquiries with the bank, he learnt that the transactions had been made overseas. Investigators suspect that his credit card may have been cloned during a foreign trip and later misused.

Bagsewania resident Rajesh Sarathe lost Rs 2.98 lakh after an unknown caller claimed to be facing a medical emergency and requested money transfers through a QR code.

Trusting the caller, Sarathe transferred the amount in multiple transactions before realising the fraud days later. Meanwhile, Khajuri Sadak resident Suresh Mewada reported that his mobile phone had been hacked. After the device restarted, he received alerts showing that Rs 98,000 had been withdrawn from his account in two transactions.