Mumbai: A Santacruz resident lost Rs 67,500 in a case of phishing after his teenaged son used the former's phone to look for a web camera and earphones worth Rs 1,000 online. The unidentified accused sent a payment link and acquired the one-time password on the pretext of selling the gadgets to the teen. While the complainant has blocked his bank account and lodged a complaint, police are investigating the matter.
On June 13, the 16-year-old son of the 51-year-old complainant who did not wish to be named, was shopping online for a new web camera and earphones to use for his online classes, which were to begin shortly. Accordingly, he googled 'web camera and earphones', which threw up a few results with contact numbers on a retail store platform.
The teenager then contacted one of the numbers, which was answered by 'Manish', who confirmed that their store had the desired gadgets in stock and sent a few pictures of these gadgets to the complainant's WhatsApp number. Convinced that he was getting a good deal for both the items at Rs 1,000, the teen went ahead with the transaction.
Police said, within a few minutes, the 16-year-old received a call from a man named 'Shahrukh', who confirmed the order for the web camera and earphones. 'Shahrukh' then sent a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) link for payment and asked for the payment. Subsequently, he also asked for the one-time password (OTP) sent by the bank on the pretext of authenticating the purchase, which was shared by the complainant. Before father and son realised what had happened, the complainant's account had been depleted of Rs 67,500.
The next day, the complainant approached the bank where he is an accountholder and blocked his account, following which he lodged a complaint with Santacruz Police on June15. After a preliminary probe, police registered a complaint of cheating on June 20, and booked the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.
