On Sunday, a superintendent who works in the central government’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) department in Mumbai became a victim of fraud and lost Rs. 1.91 lakh by a fraudster posing as a bank employee.
How Did This Happen?
In this case, the fraudster simply asked him to update his bank account’s Know-Your-Customer (KYC) information.
Next Srikumar Prasad (50) was asked to download a quick support application on his mobile phone.
After downloading the app, he had filled his credit and debit card details which further lead in loss of Rs 1.91 lakh in a series of seven-eight fraudulent transactions.
The victim has filed a first information report (FIR) at Antop Hill police station about the scam.
on Sunday morning around 9:30 am, Prasad has received a message from an unknown number mentioning about his pending bank account’s KYC update.
Further, he was told that if he did not update the KYC information then all he would not be able to make any transactions from his credit and debit cards.
The message also mentioned about calling or sending an SMS (short message service) on the provided number to complete the KYC verification procedure.
According to a police officer, Prasad, he had simply followed the instructions and called on the number, but no one answered his call.
Next, at around 3:30 pm on the same day, a person claiming to be the bank’s employee called Prasad saying he would help him in updating his KYC.
Further, he said that he was busy with office work in the morning, so could not answer his call, as per an officer from Antop Hill police station.
The Official Said, “the fraudster explained the KYC update process and asked Prasad to download an application, quick support, from the Google play store, and to fill his credit and debit card details in it. Prasad downloaded the application and punched in all the details in the app. Soon, he received an OTP (one-time-password) number on his mobile phone that he shared with the fraudster, who siphoned off Rs. 1.91 lakh from his bank account,”.
Next, Prasad received a call from his bank, in they have alerted him about the fraudulent transactions.
Afterworld he has blocked his bank account and filed a complaint with Antop Hill police station following which a case was registered under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, for cheating.
What Does The Official Say?
While talking about the incident, the official said “We have been appealing to the public to never share their confidential bank details with anyone, even if someone claims to be a bank employee. The KYC update is not permitted on the mobile phone and even bank employees are not permitted to ask any personal details related to a customer’s account,”.
Whenever such kind of incident comes into the picture, the bank and payment providers always go to the basics about never sharing your sensitive information with anyone.
Still, such incidences point a finger towards the efforts used in spreading the awareness and seems to be not enough.
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