Mumbai: A 25-year-old woman from Malad fell prey to a cyber fraud, where she had ordered clothes from a website and was duped by an unidentified fraudster, who siphoned ₹2 lakh from her account on the pretext of giving a refund. North Region Cyber Police managed to recover ₹1.5 lakh and are investigating the matter.
According to police, the woman had ordered an apparel from an online marketplace earlier this month, however, when delivered the size was inappropriate, for which she ran a Google search for online company's customer care and found one. Upon contacting, the woman asked the 'representative' to send a person for collecting the wrong delivery and getting it replaced, but the latter insisted on giving a refund and asked her to download AnyDesk app, which is a screen-sharing platform.
After downloading the app, the complainant shared an OTP and unknowingly gave her phone's access. Following this, the fraudster accessed the woman's mobile banking app and transferred ₹2 lakh to another account. When the woman learnt about it, she approached the police next day and lodged a complaint.
Based on the complaint, a First Information Report was lodged and the fraudster was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act at North Region Cyber Police Station. During the probe, police traced the account to which the money was transferred in Puri, Odisha. Police immediately alerted the bank personnel in Odisha and then asked them to freeze the account.
While they managed to freeze the account, only ₹1.5 lakh was recovered, of which ₹1 lakh has been returned to the complainant. Police said that they will soon return the ₹50,000 as well, however, the remaining money is a disputed transaction at the moment, and efforts to recover the same is underway.
