Mumbai: A marketing company was cheated to the tune of Rs 22 lakh after a fraudster contacted an employee posing as a banker and sought an OTP to update the company's account. The company lost Rs 22 lakh in a series of 110 transactions of Rs 20,000 each within 15 minutes. Borivali Police have registered a case against unknown persons and are investigating the matter.
According to police, the incident occurred on Thursday, when the company's 27-year-old employee, an admin, received a phone call from a man who claimed that he was calling from a private bank, where the company holds a business account. The complainant said in his First Information Report (FIR), "On Thursday afternoon I got a call from a man, who introduced himself as a bank personnel and informed me that he has had a word with my boss, who wanted to update the bank account details. The man asked me to provide him with a One Time Password (OTP) that was sent on the registered mobile number."
Subsequently, the man enquired with his boss and shared the OTP with the caller, who said that the updated details should reflect in the banking system after 15 minutes. Believing the caller, the complainant and his superiors forgot about the incident. About 15 minutes later, one of the customers at the shop made an online payment, and asked the admins to check if they had received it. "Upon checking the bank's mobile application, we noticed a few transactions made of Rs 20,000, which were not authorized. We immediately checked the bank statement and saw 110 transactions of Rs 20,000 each," the admin said in his complaint.
Having realised that they have been duped, the company admin immediately approached Borivali Police and lodged a complaint. Accordingly, a case of cheating was registered and the unknown accused was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act. Police said that they have begun the investigation and probe is underway.
