A 60-year-old businessman was duped to the tune of Rs 2.07 lakh after an imposter sought the victim's bank details on the pretext of helping the senior citizen to avail an online passbook service, popularly known as M-Passbook service. Vile Parle Police have booked the unidentified accused and are investigating the matter.
Amid lockdown, a number of banking transactions were moved online to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The complainant also wanted to avail the mobile passbook service, aka M-passbook service and was looking for the number of the nationalised bank's customer care. Accordingly, on June 30, the senior citizen had contacted the customer care centre and informed them of his request.
The customer care agent asked the complainant to share the bank account number and sent a link to download the screen sharing application 'Any Desk' to complete the procedure. Upon downloading the application, the imposter sought a password that gave him access of the mobile device and kept the complainant busy on the phone.
During the conversation, the senior citizen received a series of One Time Passwords (OTP), which he shared with the agent upon request, only to avail the online service of M-passbook. Within a couple of minutes, the senior lost Rs 2,07,644 in a series of transactions and realised that he was duped by the Imposter.
After approaching the bank and filling out a dispute form, he went to Vile Parle police station and lodged a complaint. Subsequently, police registered a case of cheating under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act. While police have sought the Call Data Records and bank statement to probe the case, they are investigating the case to nab the accused.
