Mumbai Fraud News: Malad Woman Claims ₹15.23 Lakh Vanished From Accounts Through Unauthorised Transactions After Receiving OTP Requests

A 43-year-old woman from Malad has claimed that Rs15.23 lakh simply vanished from her account despite the fact that she didn't share her privy banking details with anyone.

In her police complaint filed on October 25, Jigna Panchal said that she is a homemaker and holds two accounts – savings and fixed deposit – with the Punjab National Bank's Orlem Branch in Malad West. She claimed that her savings account had a balance of Rs5.02 lakh, Rs11.41 lakh was there in the fixed deposits.

On October 20 around 5pm, Panchal received three back-to-back messages from her bank, requesting one-time passwords (OTP). Notably, the messages were dated October 18 and 19. As she hadn’t made any recent transactions, she immediately checked her e-banking account and was shocked to discover that Rs5.01 lakh had been debited from her accounts through multiple transactions on October 17, 18 and 19.

In her complaint, Panchal said that she did not receive any transaction notifications via text message or email on the said dates. She further stressed that didn't share her account information, links or OTPs with anyone. She immediately contacted the bank, which informed her that an overdraft of Rs10.21 lakh had also been withdrawn from her fixed deposit account.

Panchal feels that someone illegally accessed her accounts and made the unauthorised transactions. She has filed a complaint with the North Cyber police, who have registered a case against an unidentified individual under the Information Technology Act.