An 85-year-old retired IIT Madras professor was duped of ₹2.95 lakh by a cyber fraudster on the pretext of unfreezing the bank account. The scamster tricked the octogenarian into sharing his banking details and siphoned off ₹ 3 lakh in a series of transactions. A case of cheating and impersonation has been registered at Powai police station against the unidentified scamster.
According to police, the incident occurred on Tuesday evening, at around 5 pm, when the complainant, a pensioner of IIT Madras, received a call from a man, who identified himself as an employee of a private bank and informed the senior that her bank account has been frozen. In a bid to unfreeze the account, the caller asked the senior to share her bank details like account number, IFSC Code, and debit card number along with the CVV.
When the retired professor sought answers for the necessity of all these details, the caller told her that this is the bank's procedure and that if she failed to unfreeze the account, it could not be reversed later. Since the octogenarian used the account for her daily expenses, she panicked and fell prey to the con. The woman shared all the details sought by the caller, and also gave the OTPs received on her mobile number.
The unidentified caller then asked her to discuss a number, following which she received messages of money getting deducted from her account in a series of transactions. In a similar way, a few more transactions were made from the account and later when she contacted the bank officials, the retired professor realised that her internet banking ID and password were reset and the mobile number banking information was changed without her authorisation, wherein all the OTPs were sent on that updated mobile number. A total of ₹2.95 lakh was siphoned off from the complainant.
Realising that she had been duped, the retired IIT Madras professor approached Powai police and lodged a complaint, following which a case was registered against the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.
