Army veteran loses Rs 20L in online fraud

Our Correspondent

Palampur, December 24

An 87-year-old Army veteran became a victim of online fraud as over Rs 20 lakh were withdrawn from his savings account in the early hours of December 23.

The veteran came to know about it in the morning when he checked messages on his mobile phone. He found that approximately Rs 20 lakh had been transferred online from his Punjab National Bank (PNB) account though different transactions. Later, he approached his PNB branch in Palampur and got his account blocked to avoid further withdrawals.

While talking to The Tribune, he said he belonged to Deogram village, 10 km from Palampur, and had been banking with the PNB, Palampur, for the last 45 years. He does not use online banking. He said he had lost whatever he had saved in the past 15 years along with the pension money.

A number of PNB customers who were standing outside the bank expressed their shock over the incident. They said the bank should take urgent steps to strengthen data security to avoid such frauds. They questioned how the debit of such a large value in different transactions went unnoticed by the bank.