Mumbai: Man loses ₹2 lakh to cyber fraud on pretext of opting out of personal insurance

A 57-year-old Goregaon-based professional was duped to the tune of ₹2.02 lakh on the pretext of availing a personal insurance on their prime credit card. The fraudster posed as a bank representative and siphoned off the money. While a case has been registered at Goregaon police station, no arrests have been made and a police probe is underway.

According to police sources, the incident occurred on December 23, when the complainant, a professional, had received a call from a woman, who identified herself as Neha Singh, a representative of a nationalised bank. The complainant had ₹7.16 lakh in his savings account and was offered personal insurance on the credit card, for an annual fee of ₹17,000.

When the complainant declined, Singh asked him to follow a link and share an OTP to switch off the personal insurance. The complainant diligently followed the instructions and shared the OTP, only to lose ₹2,02,596 in a series of two transactions. The confirmation of the transaction was received to the complainant via email, only to realise that he had been duped.

The complainant immediately alerted the police and the bank officials, following which a case was registered against the unidentified person, who was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating and impersonation. The Goregaon Police are investigating the matter and no arrests have been made yet.