Man loses Rs 1.97 lakh to phishing attack in Amritsar

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 12

Even as the police and bank authorities raise awareness regarding cyber frauds and tell them not to share their details with anyone, people are losing their hard-earned money to online fraudsters.

In the latest incident, Kanwal Kumar Sareen a resident of Batala Road, fell victim to cyber fraud. A woman swindler posing as a bank manager took the details of his debit and credit cards and later withdrew around Rs1.97 lakh from his account.

The incident came to light when he lodged a complaint with the police when he got the message of withdrawal of money thrice. By the time he saw the message and reported the same to the bank authorities, the accused had withdrawn Rs1.97 lakh from his bank account.

The number from where the call was made was found to be fake. The call was made from Uttar Pradesh. As per the investigation, the number was never procured by the person on whose name it was issued. The police have registered a case under Sections 419, 420 of the IPC and 66-C and 66-D of the Information Technology Act against unidentified fraudsters.

Kawal told the police that he got a phone call from 72330-99508, who identified herself as Divya Sharma, SBI Bank Manager. She told him that his credit card number was getting blocked and she would restore the same. She sought the CVV and OTP from him. She also took the details of his debit card from him. Later, he found that Rs72, 984 and Rs24,892 were withdrawn from his debit card and Rs99,703 from his credit card.

Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Investigations, said bank authorities always alert people not to share card details such as CVV and OTP as bank officials never seek the same. Yet people make mistakes and get defrauded. He said people should be alert and not respond to such calls.

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