A retired BMC employee was duped by an unidentified cyber fraudster to the tune of ₹2.8 lakh on the pretext of updating the PAN card number in the account details. The accused person has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating and impersonation at Kandivali police station. While no arrests have been made, a police probe is underway.
According to police, the incident occurred on March 28, when the 69-year-old retired BMC engineer, a Kandivali resident, had received a message on his mobile number, which read, "Dear SBI user Your YONO account will be blocked today. Please click on the link to update your PAN CARD Number," followed by a link. Hours later, when the complainant tapped on the link and was redirected to a webpage, which asked him to enter his PAN card number.
The complainant subsequently received a One Time Password (OTP) which he entered on the webpage, and ended up losing ₹2,80,007.66 from his account. He immediately contacted the bank's customer care, only to realize that he had been duped. He subsequently approached the Kandivali police station along with a bank statement and lodged a complaint, acting on which a case was registered and the unidentified accused was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating and impersonation.
On Tuesday, the city police chief Sanjay Pandey expressed the need of a dedicated law for tackling rising cybercrimes and said that existing law is not sufficient for routing out the menace. While stressing for the dedicated law for cyber crime the police chief has stressed on data protection and security which is there in foreign countries.
"Senior citizens and those new to technology fell victim to cybercrime cases more easily for which awareness is necessary," Pandey said while being vocal on this issue. Cybercrime cases are rising daily and even if he dedicates all his officers to dealing with cybercrimes, then also it is not going be sufficient, added Pandey.
