Now, trader loses Rs 36K in ATM fraud

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana July 28

The number of cyber crime cases in the city are on the rise with each passing day. Now, cyber criminals have targeted wholesaler footwear dealer. The accused managed to withdraw Rs 36,000 from the dealer’s credit card through an ATM located in Delhi.

The victim alleged that the police refused to accept his complaint citing that the location of the crime was in Delhi. So, only the police in the Capital could a register case in this connection, he added.

The victim, identified as Yograj Garg, a resident of Basant Avenue, owns a footwear store in Clock Tower. Garg said he had a Citibank credit card and never faced such an issue in the past. He received a credit card statement showing a debit of Rs 48,000 on July 17. What shocked him was an entry of Rs 36,000 cash withdrawal from an ATM in Pharganj, Delhi. “This is a fraud,” he added.

Yograj quipped that when he never visited Delhi in his life, how could he withdraw cash from an ATM there. The credit card was also with him on the day swindlers withdrew cash from the ATM.

When he told bank officials about the withdrawal they did not believe him. Instead they told him that he might have gone to Delhi to withdraw the cash. “I have told bank officials that whenever I withdraw cash from the card, I always receive a message and an email. But, when Rs 36,000 was withdrawn, I neither received a message nor an email,” said Yograj.

“When I asked the Kotwali police to register an FIR, officials told me to visit Delhi to lodge the complaint as crime took place in the Capital,” he alleged.

However, when contacted SHO, Kotwali, Inspector Harjinder Singh Bhatti, said no one had approached him with a complaint regarding a credit card fraud. “If any such fraud occurs, then we will register an FIR. Otherwise as per the rule, ideally an FIR can be registered at place where the bank is located,” he added.

Cyber crime cases

• nAccountant Sukhwinder Singh of Gaispura lost Rs 80,000 to cyber criminals
• n Arun Beri, an industrialist, was cheated of Rs 70 lakh by a swindler in net banking fraud
• n Criminals duped Mohan Singh, a manufacturer, of Rs 2.5 lakh