A 32-year-old housewife from Nallasopara was duped of Rs 76,000 by a digital wallet platform by using a fake customer care number while she was seeking refund of Rs 900.
According to the statement, the woman (name withheld) purchased some essentials worth Rs 900 from a grocery store near her house in the Nagindaspada area of Nallasopara. She made an online payment for the purchase and the amount got deducted from her account. The following day, the grocer informed her that he had not received the money.
The woman then looked up Google's search engine to get a customer service care number of the e-wallet company for assistance and found a number. Upon calling the number, the cyber crook who posed as an executive, assured of initiating the reversal process, while asking her to download a mobile application and later seeking details of her debit card number, card verification value (CVV) and one time password (OTP), the police said.
The woman complied, following which Rs 76,503 was debited from the linked bank account in a series of transactions.
Based on the complaint the police have registered an offence under section 420 of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
The police have advised that people should always check for customer care numbers on the official website of the financial institution or any e-wallet service providers and also make sure that the sensitive bank/card details are not divulged in any form.
