ATM fraud: Dharamsala tehsildar duped of Rs 50,000

Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, January 1

Dharamsala Tehsildar Sanjeev Kumar was duped of Rs 50,000 by a conman who obtained his ATM card on the pretext of issuing him a new card. Kumar said he received a call on December 28 from a Kolkata number and the man on the other side claimed to be the manager of Dharamsala branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB), where he holds an account.

The conman said his ATM card would be blocked on December 31 and instructed him to share the details of his card and also the One Time Password (OTP) to avoid the same, the tehsildar said.

Kumar said he received three OTPs within a span of five minutes and shared these with the conman. He, however, got suspicious when he again received an OTP. “I then rushed to the bank and got my account freezed. By then, the fraudster had done online shopping worth Rs 50,000. I had about Rs 7 lakh in the account,” he said.

Kumar said the conman also called his family members in Lahaul-Spiti to know their card details. “I received a call from the same person on December 29 also,” he said.Kumar said he filed a complaint with the bank but they expressed inability in recovering the amount. “I also met a senior police officer who said such people are difficult to track as they use mobile numbers obtained on fake identity,” the tehsildar said.

How the incident took place

• A conman obtained the ATM card of Sandeep Kumar on the pretext of issuing him a new one. 
• On December 28, Kumar got a call from a Kolkata number and the man on the other side claimed to be the manager of the Dharamsala branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB), where he holds an account. 
• The conman said his ATM card would be blocked on December 31 and instructed him to share the details of his card and also the OTP to avoid the same.