A 73-year-old man who had retired from a senior position in a pharmaceutical company had recently become a victim of a phishing fraud. The victim had received a text message asking him to click a link mentioned in the message to redeem his credit card reward points. The victim clicked the link and was directed to a form. Once the victim entered his card details on the said form, the scammer made transactions of ₹3.50 lakh.
According to the police, on October 18, around 8:00 pm, when the victim was at his residence in Thane, he received a text message on his phone: "Dear Customer, Your Credit Card Reward Points worth ₹5,699 will expire today. Please click on the link below to redeem your points in your account." The message contained a link. The victim then clicked on the link in the hope of redeeming reward points on his credit card.
As soon as the victim clicked the said link, he was directed to a form. The victim then shared his credit card number, credit card expiry date, and CVV number on the said form. When the victim clicked the submit button, he received two OTPs on his phone, after which transactions of ₹2 lakh and ₹1.50 lakh took place on his card. That's when the victim realized that he had been scammed online.
He immediately called the bank and informed them about the fraudulent transactions, requesting them to block his credit card. The victim then approached the police and had an offense registered in the matter. On Monday, the police registered a case under sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using a computer resource) of the Information Technology Act."
