A 46-year-old Govandi-based housewife was duped to the tune of Rs 2 lakh after she received a call from a man posing as a bank agent and sought her debit card details on the pretext of changing her card's PIN amid a slew of cyber crime frauds. While police have booked the accused, they have sought the Call Data Records (CDR) to nab him.
In the month of May, the complainant, an account holder in a nationalised bank, had applied for a new debit-cum-ATM card as the old one had expired. Subsequently, 20 days later, a new card was delivered to her in June and in a bid to activate and reset the ATM PIN, she visited a nearby ATM centre. However, since her mobile number did not match the registered number at the bank, she was unable to reset the PIN. Since the pandemic induced lockdown was underway, the complainant decided to pursue the matter later.
On July 29, however, she received a call from a man, who introduced himself as an agent of the bank, while the caller ID on the phone read as 'Deepak Manager'. This agent told the woman that he was calling regarding inactivity of her debit card since the last two months, which made her believe his credibility. "The man also told me that due to the Covid pandemic and one of the bank staff being infected with the virus, all the formalities of renewing the card and other bank activities were carried out online. He then offered to do the verification and update my debit card PIN online, to which I agreed," said the woman in her complaint.
The woman then shared her bank account's privy details like card number, CVV number, its expiration date, account number, the PIN for online banking among others. She received over eight One Time Passwords (OTP) on her mobile phone, which the woman shared with the bank's agent in a bid to complete the verification process and update the debit card PIN.
In a series of transactions, the woman lost Rs 2,00,037 and informed the agent about the same. Before hanging up the phone call, the man told her that the debited amount will be credited in her account as a reversal within 30 minutes and she should not worry. After waiting for a couple of hours when the reversal did not come through and the mobile number used by the agent was inactive, the complainant realised she was duped.
The woman then approached Shivaji Nagar Police and lodged a complaint, after which police booked the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating. Police have sought the details from the bank and are investigating the matter.
