A Colaba based senior citizen lost ₹9.26 lakh to a calling fraud wherein a scamster posed as a telecom company and asked the senior to download a screen sharing app and siphoned off the money. While a case of cheating and impersonation has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, no arrests have been made yet. Police are investigating the matter further.
According to police sources, the complainant, who is a share broker businessman, said that his father had received a call from a man who claimed to be a customer service agent from a leading telecom company. The caller said that the calling service would stop if the senior does not get his SIM verification done. The senior citizen hung up the phone call and contacted his son, informing him about the incident.
The son, who is the complainant in this case, advised his father not to entertain the calls and paid his father's pending mobile bill. The senior, however, continued to receive the calls from the number, but he ignored them. Several attempts to call later, the senior received a call from a landline, which he answered and said that the bill had been paid. The caller, however, claimed that the SIM verification is needed, otherwise the bill payment serves no purpose.
The senior, scared, gave his ear to whatever the caller wanted to say and downloaded a screen sharing app from the play store, following which he lost ₹9.26 lakh from two of his bank accounts. Upon realizing, the senior immediately notified his son, who informed his father that he had been duped and instantly approached the Colaba police station, which booked the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act. While no arrests have been made, police are making further inquiries in the case.
