Dharamsala woman duped of Rs 6.5L in cyber fraud
A 55-year-old woman from Dharamsala was allegedly cheated of Rs 6.45 lakh after cyber fraudsters cloned her mobile phone SIM card, police officials said here on Friday.
According to the police, the victim, Nisha Sood, wife of Umesh Sood and a resident of Ward No. 6, Kotwali Bazaar, lodged a complaint stating that the fraud dates back to January 20, when she clicked on a fake link related to the PM Awas Yojana.
Soon after clicking the link, her mobile network stopped functioning normally and incoming calls were automatically forwarded to an unknown number. This, the police said, pointed to SIM cloning and call-forwarding manipulation by the fraudsters.
During this period, Rs 2.40 lakh was unauthorisedly withdrawn from her State Bank of India account, while another Rs 4,04,996 was siphoned off from her HDFC Bank account without her knowledge or consent.
The victim reported the incident to the national cyber crime helpline (1930) and the Cyber Crime Branch of the state police. Following her complaint, the affected bank accounts were frozen to prevent further losses. She has also submitted 21 pages of supporting documents to the police.
Nisha Sood has further alleged negligence on the part of an employee of the HDFC Bank’s Kotwali Bazaar branch in handling the matter.
Confirming the case, Additional Superintendent of Police Bir Bahadur said a criminal case under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) had been registered at the Dharamsala police station against unidentified persons. Further investigations were underway, he added.
