Lost Phone Costs 73-Year-Old Elderly Labourer His Savings In Indore

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A 73-year-old labourer fell victim to online fraud after an unidentified person activated a UPI app on his lost mobile phone and siphoned Rs 3.34 lakh from his bank account over five days under the Sanwer police station's jurisdiction.

The victim, Madanlal Chauhan, a resident of Ganesh Colony in Dharampuri, reported that the incident occurred after he lost his phone at the Dharampuri weekly market on March 16. Despite extensive searching, he could not trace the device. He subsequently obtained a replacement SIM card for his registered number.

The fraud came to light when Chauhan visited his bank branch to withdraw money and discovered that unauthorised transactions had cleared his savings between March 16 and March 21, 2025.

According to the complaint, the unidentified suspect utilised Chauhan's lost phone and linked SIM card to set up a PhonePe account without his authorisation, illegally transferring a total of Rs 3,34,270 from his linked bank account.

Chauhan initially lodged a cybercrime complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP). Following a preliminary inquiry, Sanwer police registered a case under section 318(4) of the BNS and section 66D of the IT Act.

Police have launched an investigation to trace the fraudulent UPI transactions and identify the suspect.