An Indian Navy personnel fell prey to cybercrime, losing more than Rs. 1.18 lakh when he went to buy a pair of trousers from a shop in Mira Road and paid for it using his father’s debit card. Two days later, however, the account/ cardholder had the shock of his life when he received twelve SMSs on his mobile phone about fraudulent withdrawals amounting to Rs 1,18,276 from his savings bank account, reportedly due to card cloning.
The victim’s father also serves in the Navy. Notably, 11 of the 12 withdrawals were for the same amount—Rs. 10,023, from the account linked to the ATM card, without a one-time password (OTP) or personal identification number (PIN), indicating a card-cloning racket in operation in the twin-cities. Based on a complaint registered by the Navy personnel's mother, the unidentified cyber crooks were charged with an offence under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code against at the Naya Nagar police station on Friday.
Further investigations are underway. The twin-cities have been witnessing an alarming rise in cyber fraud cases in the past couple of months. Apart from the recent spate of frauds related to calls and messages to consumers with fake warnings about the disconnection of their electricity supply due to unpaid bills, cyber crooks have been devising novel ways to siphon off funds from bank accounts and digital wallets of people.
“People should be extremely cautious before entering into any type of financial transactions with strangers and stay away from clicking unsolicited links or sharing personal details,” is the appeal by DCP (Crime) Vijaykant Sagar. Last week, a 36-year-old graphic designer from Mira Road was duped of Rs 17,500 by cyber crooks under the pretext of allocating fancy/ VIP mobile numbers. Earlier, attempts were made to extort money from a well-known Rajasthani singer by threatening to post her morphed photos on social media platforms.
