A 35-year-old businessman from Bhayandar became the latest victim of a phishing scam. Online fraudsters hacked into his e-wallet account and siphoned off more than Rs. 3.67 lakh under the guise of completing the Know Your Customer (KYC) information process, police said on Friday.
In his complaint to the Mira Road police, the businessman who runs a spring manufacturing unit stated that he received a phone call from an unidentified caller who pretended to be a customer care employee of a popular e-commerce payment system and asked him to complete the mandated KYC process in order to continue using services.
After a brief conversation, the fake caller asked him to download certain applications and asked him to make a token transaction of Re. one from his Paytm account for verification. After completing the so-called KYC process, followed by the token payment, the complainant got the shock of his life as more than Rs. 2.69 lakh was immediately siphoned via multiple transactions from his bank account which was linked with the mobile wallet.
The fraudster did not stop there. In an apparent attempt to win the confidence of his target, they remitted Rs. 50,000 and brazenly called up the target again. This time he was again convinced to repeat the process in order to get the entire funds credited back into his account. The complainant complied and lost more money, this time from his savings bank account. The bizman lost a total of Rs. 3,67,343.
A case under section 420 of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology (amended) Act, 2008 has been registered at the Bhayandar police station against unidentified fraudsters. Further investigations were underway.
