Mumbai: A hacker cleaned out a medical student’s savings — stealing Rs 1,49,645 from his account in a public sector bank in just three days last week. According to the father of Mohammad Umar, 19, a Mumbai resident studying medicine in Pune, on February 15, Mohammad received a call from an unknown person. The caller asked him for his bank account details, saying his debit card had expired and had to be updated. However, Mohammad refused to divulge the information, saying he would personally visit the bank and update his card.
But later on the same day, Mohammad received an SMS that Rs 50,000 had been debited from his account. A shocked Mohammad immediately called his father and asked him to visit the bank and block his card. Umar’s father rushed to the bank and they said they had blocked the card but he had to report the incident to police and bring a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) to complete the process for insurance purposes.
Colaba Police initially refused to lodge the complaint, saying it was a matter for the bank to take care of. However, amounts of Rs 49,645 and Rs 50,000 were withdrawn from Mohammad’s account on February 16 and 17 respectively, despite the card being blocked. On February 17, finally, the police agreed to lodge a complaint and an FIR was registered.
Mohammad called the bank’s customer care services on February 17, a Sunday, and told them what had happened. He was informed by the customer care executive that the money has been transferred to an account through a unified payments interface (UPI).
Colaba Police have registered a case against unknown person/s under sections of cheating (420), criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication (507). Speaking to The Free Press Journal, Shivaji Fadtare, senior police inspector, Colaba police station said, “The teen got a phishing call and he probably may have provided enough details for the phishers to wipe out his account through digital banking (UPI). The bank was informed about it by the victim’s family but it failed to respond.”
