A 60-year-old retired banker lost ₹12.50 lakh after a cyber fraudster lured her into a trap of winning prize money of ₹7.5 lakh. The fraudster sent a letter to her bank with a lottery ticket to trap her, the victim was later made to pay in the name of various charges and that is when she lost her money to the fraudsters. Malad police have launched an investigation.
As per the First Information Report (FIR), the woman, a resident of Malad was the chief manager at the Navsari branch of a nationalised bank and retired last year.
In August, a letter was received at the bank's branch office in her name which was purportedly sent from a home shopping company. The bank officials sent the letter to her Malad address since it was in her name. There was a scratch card inside, when scratched, it was claimed in the card that she had won ₹7.5 lakh on the occasion of the company's 12 anniversary, said police.
Unsuspecting of any fraud, the woman contacted the given number where a fraudster claimed that she had won the lottery explained the procedure and also took her bank credentials however, he added that she need to bear the taxes and pay some charges.
Initially, she was asked to pay ₹8,250 for Service Tax, later ₹22,500 in the name of GST and then ₹45,000 on the pretext of Incom Tax.
The victim was also made to pay ₹1.50 lakh for the delay, said the victim in her statement to the police. In the next couple of days, she was made to pay a total of ₹12.50 lakh.
A few days later, the fraudster switched off his phone, it was then the victim got worried and realised that she had been duped.
We have registered an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 406 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) along with Information Technology act section 66C (punishment for identity theft) and 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resources).
We are trying to trace the accused with their mobile numbers and account details in which money had been deposited, said an officer from Malad police station.
