Mumbai: Engineer loses Rs 80k to cyber-fraud

A 49-year-old mechanical engineer who wanted to get back Rs 10000 deposited in his membership card issued by a company which is into a retail chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores and grocery stores, was duped by a cyber-fraud on the pretext of helping the victim to get back his money.

According to the Wadala police, the complainant had taken a profit membership card of a retail store company for shopping purposes and Rs 10,000 was remaining in the said card. Since the nearby outlet of the company had shut down, the victim decided to withdraw his money from the card.

On Friday, when the victim was at work at Wadala, the victim surfed on the internet about the customer care number and came across a fraudulent number. The victim contacted on the said number and raised his issue with regard to getting back his money.

The fraudster then induced the victim to install a remote access app on his phone and share his credit card details. After the victim followed instructions of the fraudster, the latter siphoned Rs 80,000 from his card in two different transactions, police said.

Having realised that he had been duped, the victim got his credit card blocked from the bank and then lodged a complaint with the police on Saturday. The police have registered a case under sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.

Published on: Sunday, November 13, 2022, 10:10 PM IST