A 78-year-old south Mumbai resident was duped to the tune of ₹2.18 lakh by an imposter who claimed to be associated with a private bank, and cheated the senior of his money on the pretext of re-activating the inactive credit card. The senior was tricked into sharing his credit card number, CVV number and the OTPs, following which the money was transferred in a series of transactions. While a complaint has been lodged with the Malabar Hill Police, no arrests have been made and the probe is underway.
The SoBo based septuagenarian who uses two credit cards, received a phone call from a man, Vijay Chouhan, who introduced himself as the bank’s personnel. During the phone conversation, Chouhan told the senior that his credit card from the private bank has expired, making in invalid for use. Panicked, the 78-year-old man asked Chouhan to reactivate it.
Taking advantage of the vulnerability, Chouhan asked the senior to share his credit card number, his account number and the CVV. Believing Chouhan to be a legitimate bank personnel, the senior shared his details along with any OTPs that he received. In a matter of 20 minutes, there were a number of transactions made from his credit card of ₹56,471, ₹62,000, ₹39,000 and ₹49,000, amounting to a total of ₹2.18 lakh.
After realising that he was duped, the 78-year-old alerted his nephew, who then approached police on behalf of his uncle and lodged a complaint, as the senior could not travel due to the pandemic. Malabar Hill Police have registered a complaint against the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating, impersonation.
