A 58-year-old Santacruz resident was duped to the tune of ₹2.97 lakh on the pretext of updating KYC details on his mobile network provider. The unidentified accused trapped the victim by sending a message that his number will be deactivated if KYC is not updated, following which the money was usurped in a series of transactions. A case of cheating has been registered at Andheri police station, wherein the accused has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.
According to Andheri police sources, the incident occurred on August 17, when the complainant, who works at a private office in Andheri East, received a message on his wife’s mobile phone, which read, ‘Dear customer, your Vodafone number e-KYC has expired. Please call the customer care number immediately, or your number will be deactivated within 48 hours’. Upon reading the alert, the woman forwarded it to her husband, who tried contacting the number mentioned in the message, but it was busy.
The statement given by the complainant read that he received a call two hours later, wherein a man, who identified himself as a mobile service provider employee, asked the victim to download Team Viewer Quick Support application, a remote access application, by sending a link. After the man complied, the caller asked him to fill out his wife’s details, mobile number and his email ID.
In his statement, the complainant said the man asked him to wire ₹10 as e-KYC processing charges. He first tried paying through netbanking, but it failed.
He later transferred ₹10 via his credit card. The accused then told him to hold the line for a verification email. While he held the call, he received an alert that ₹50,000 was debited from his credit card, which is when he realised he had been duped.
He immediately hung up and contacted the bank to check if money had been debited from the account of his wife, whose details he had entered.
After losing ₹2.97 lakh, he approached the Santacruz police, which redirected him to Andheri police station.
Acting on the complaint, a case of cheating, impersonation was registered against unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act. The Andheri police are probing the matter, and have approached the bank to freeze the account.
