A 60-year-old trader from Dadar became the latest victim of cyber fraud when he was duped by a woman purportedly calling from his bank. With an offer to increase the victim’s credit card limit, the woman cheated him to the tune of Rs 2 lakh.
According to the Dadar police, the victim who is a distributer received a call from an unknown number on Friday evening. The caller-identification application installed on his phone detected the number as that of his bank. After the trader picked up the call, the woman on the other side introduced herself as a representative from the bank and asked the trader to update a benefit voucher on his credit card for future offers. The woman then asked for an OTP number sent on his phone. Not sensing any fraud, the trader gave the OTP number to the woman.
A few minutes later, the woman again called him, this time she claimed that the bank has approved to increase the credit limit on his card and offered a life time free credit card, she further assured to waive off yearly charges. Again she asked for the OTP sent on his number and this time as well the trader fell for the trap.
On Sunday afternoon, the businessman was shocked when he found a message from his bank about a credit card bill of Rs 2 lakh. When he checked the messages which he received on Friday while he was in a meeting, he found five transactions messages. As per the messages Rs 2 lakh were transferred to some account in five transactions.
The trader then approached the bank and blocked his card and enquired about the fraud, the bank officials then asked him to file a First Information Report with the police. On the trader's complaint the Dadar police registered a online cheating case against the unknown person however no arrest has been made so far.
In case you are a victim of cyber fraud:
▪︎Immediately alert the local police station or call the 24x7 Cyber Helpline-- 9820810007 set up to prevent and tackle Cyber Crime.
▪︎For bank frauds, immediately alert the concerned bank, block the card and fill a dispute form. If a fraud is reported within 24 hours of crime, it becomes the responsibility of the concerned stakeholder to recover the money.
▪︎Never share your bank details, debit/credit card number, and One Time Password (OTP).
While alerting bank, keep following documents handy --
•Bank statement of the last six months
•A copy of SMSs received related to the alleged transactions
•Identity and address proof as shown in the bank records
