A 47-year-old businessman from the Malabar Hill area lost Rs 3.70 lakh after a fraudster posing as a customer care representative of a mobile service provider lured him into sharing his bank details. The fraudster on the pretext of renewing the victim's SIM card gathered all his financial details and withdrew the money. The Malabar Hill police have registered an offence and further investigations is underway.
Recently, the victim who is in the chemical business received a call from an unknown number. The caller identified himself as one Manish Surve and claimed that he was the customer care representative of his mobile service provider. Surve claimed that the businessman's SIM card had expired and asked him to recharge it with Rs 20.
The victim believed it to be true and gave his banking details, credit card number and also Aadhaar number as asked by the fraudster. Soon the victim started receiving One Time Passwords (OTP) on his mobile he also shared them with the fraudster.
As soon as the phone got disconnected, the victim was shocked to receive a transaction alert of Rs 3.70 lakh from his credit card. He immediately contacted Surve but his number was not reachable. The victim then realised his mistake and contacted his bank who asked him to approach the police.
We have registered an offence of cheating by personation (419) and cheating (420) along with section 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act and investigation is underway, said a police officer from Malabar Hill police station.
We have written to the bank for the account details in which the money had been transferred and also sought callers details from the service provider, added the officer.
