Junior engineer falls prey to online fraud

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 20

In yet another incident, a local resident was duped by online fraudsters on the pretext of unblocking an ATM card.

The victim, identified as Rajwant Singh, a junior engineer (JE) with Punjab State Power Corporation limited (PSPCL), said the unidentified accused introduced themselves on phone as employees of State Bank of Patiala (SBoP) and sought the details of his debit card while saying that the bank was allotting new numbers to cards and this card would be blocked by them. They asked whether he wanted to unblock the same.

Rajwant said he had a bank account with the Chheharta branch of the SBoP when received a call in the evening and he could not think in his wildest dreams that he was being defrauded.

He said minutes after he gave his ATM number and password, he received an SMS stating “You have did a shopping worth Rs 49,000,” said Rajwant. He said he immediately realised that someone had duped him.

This is the third such incident reported in the city in the past week. Earlier, Mahesh Kumar of Gopal Nagar located on Majitha road, said he received a call from a mobile number.

The person speaking on the other side of the phone identified himself as Deepak Sharma, a representative of the State Bank of India, speaking from Mumbai.

He said the person impersonated a bank employee so meticulously that he did not suspect that the accused was actually a fraud.

New Jawahar Nagar resident Baldev Raj, a retired railways employee, lost Rs 16,000 from his account in a similar manner.

Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said though the investigations in the complaints received by the police were under progress, people should also be aware of such tactics.

He said authorities of any banks never ask for such details from their customers over phone.

In fact, he added, the banks often instruct customers to not to divulge such information to strangers on phone.

Beware of fraudsters: Commissioner  

Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said though the investigations in the complaints received by the police were under progress, people should also be aware of such tactics of fraudsters. Authorities of any banks never ask for such details from their customers over phone.