A 32-year-old banker from Kandivali recently lost Rs 10 lakh to a search engine listing fraud when she went online in search of a customer care number of the bank in which she was working for last six years. Apparently, the number she got online was that of a fraudster who obtained a pre-approved loan of Rs 12.90 lakh in her name and made her transfer Rs 10 lakh of it. On the banker's complaint, the Charkop police have registered an offence and began their probe.
The complainant, a resident of Charkop is working at a nationalised bank at Chandivali in the operation department. Last week the victim went online in search of the bank's customer care number after her debit card developed a problem.
As soon as she dialled the number, the call get disconnected and she received a call from another number immediately. The caller posing as a representative of the bank asked her about her debit card problem.
According to the police, upon hearing her, the fraudster made her download Any Desk and Team Viewer Quick Support applications and gained control over her phone. He further asked her to start her banking app to activate her debit card, said police.
Meanwhile, Rs 12.90 lack had been credited to her account, the fraudster claimed that the money belong to someone else and credited it in her account mistakenly. He further told her that, she would be penalised if she did not return it and gave her multiple accounts numbers to transfer the money. He also told her not to disconnect the phone until the completion of the transaction. The woman believed him and transferred the money in the given accounts.
Meanwhile, the victim received a call from her bank manager, when she narrated her story to the manager who got suspicious and told her to ask the representative about his employee ID. When asked, he told her 10 digit number, however, the bank has six-digit employee ID, when the victim asked him to repeat the ID, he disconnected the phone.
When the victim checked with her bank, she realised that the fraudster availed a pre-approved loan of Rs 12.90 lakh in her name and credited the money in her account and later made her transfer over Rs 10 lakh.
Since the call got disconnected during the transaction, Rs 10 lakh were transferred. The bank officials asked her to file a police complaint.
We have registered an offence of cheating and impersonation along with relevant sections of the Information Technology act. We have asked the banks to freeze the accounts in which the money has been transferred, we are also tracing the accused with the help of his mobile number and banking details, said an officer from Charkop police station.
