Mira-Bhayandar: Seeking 599 refund for failed recharge, teacher loses Rs. 62K to cyber fraudster

A 48-year-old school teacher became the latest target of cyber crooks after he lost Rs. 62,000 while seeking a refund of a failed mobile recharge transaction.

In his complaint to the police, the teacher stated that he wanted to make inquiries regarding a failed payment for his mobile recharged amounting Rs. 599 but ended up losing Rs.62,000 in two different shopping transactions of reputed online marketplaces within minutes after he came across a fraudulent helpline number of the payment gateway company on the internet search engine.

The fraudster on the pretext of helping the victim asked him to share the One Time Passwords (OTP) and siphoned off Rs.44,990 and Rs. 15,298 by making purchases on the platform of reputed e-marketplaces.

Immediately, after lodging the complaint, the cyber-crime cell attached to the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police-initiated action and managed to stop one of the payments. A case under the relevant sections of the IPC and Information Technology Act for identity theft and punishment for cheating by impersonation by using computer resources has been registered at the Kashimira police station.

According to the police, it is possible to help victims of online frauds by reversing the transaction by establishing contact with the merchant sites and their payment gateways to get their money back. However, this is only possible if the complainants approach the police within a few hours of the fraudulent transaction.

While appealing to citizens, to call the cyber-crime cell on 1930 in case of online frauds, the MBVV police have tagged a list of common cyber-crime methods including- fake customer care numbers on search engines, work from home offers, lottery prizes, calls for KYC update, Quick Response (QR) code scanning, instant loans, online shopping and selling marketplaces, video calls on social media platforms.