Mumbai: A senior citizen from Borivali was duped to the tune of Rs 50,000 by an imposter on the pretext of helping him pay Rs 560 for the medicines he had ordered online. The senior citizen lost the money in a series of transactions after he shared the One Time Password (OTP) with the imposter to get the payment done.
The complainant, Prabhakar Jadhav, a resident of Borivali (W), stays with his wife and the senior couple survives on the pension she gets. In May, when the Coronavirus pandemic induced lockdown was at its peak, everyone was compelled to stay in their houses. During this time, Jadhav had ordered a few medicines barely costing Rs 560, online from a merchant. However, when the septuagenarian tried to make the payment, his attempt was unsuccessful.
A few hours later, Jadhav received a call from a man who claimed to be calling from the online merchant's end and told the senior that the payment status was not updated. The man offered to assist Jadhav in making the payment and sought the septuagenarian's debit card details like the card number and CVV. Innocently believing the man, Jadhav shared the details, only to receive a series of OTPs during the call.
"The man asked me to share the six OTPs received to complete the payment procedure and I obliged. While I was busy talking to him, I received six OTPs and four messages of money being debited from my account. When I enquired about the transactions wherein Rs 50,000 was debited, he assured me that the money will be reimbursed and credited the next day," Jadhav said in his complaint.
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Jadhav patiently waited the next day for the money to be reimbursed, only to get disappointed. Upon realising that he has been duped, Jadhav immediately rushed to the bank to submit a dispute form and then approached Borivali Police to lodge a complaint.
Acting on Jadhav's complaint, Borivali Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on July 23 and booked the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act. Police said, the search for the cyber fraudster is underway and they have sought the bank, call data records to identify and nab the accused.
