Mumbai: A 53-year-old film distributor was duped to the tune of ₹2.9 lakh by an imposter who gifted a phone worth ₹6k to the victim to carry out the fraud. The accused first failed at first defrauding him of ₹4 lakh when the bank reversed the transaction, the victim ended up losing ₹2.9 lakh by the details shared earlier.
According to police sources, the complainant, a Juhu resident, had received a call on March 27, wherein the caller had offered a diner's club international credit card, asking him to link any of his existing cards, but since the complainant was busy, he declined the offer. A few days later, he received another call from the same person offering the credit card, and had sent a message with a link to apply for it.
When the complainant tapped the link, the imposter gave him a password, which after entering, sought his privy details like name, address, PAN card number, AADHAAR card number and credit card number, which the victim gave. The fraudster later asked for the victim's email address and said that he is unable to send a link as the latter has an iPhone. In a bid to facilitate the fraud, the accused sent a new phone and asked him to access the link from it.
The victim obliged and followed the instructions, only to enter the password and lost out on ₹4 lakh from his account. Realising that there was an unauthorized transaction, the complainant immediately blocked all his cards, internet banking and the money was reversed.
The complainant, however, ended up losing ₹2.9 lakh in a series of transactions from his bank account, as he had already shared his credit card number with a different bank account. Realising that he was duped, the film distributor immediately approached the Juhu police station and lodged a complaint, acting on which a case of cheating and impersonation was registered against the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.
