65-year-old garment trader loses Rs 2.7 lakh in online fraud after phone is hacked by scammer posing as a bank official | Representative image
Mumbai: 65-year-old garment trader loses Rs2.7 lakh in online fraud after phone is hacked by scammer posing as a bank official.
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According to the police, the complainant, who is a resident of Ulhasnagar, received a call from an unknown man on September 24. Introducing himself as Vikram Sharma, the latter claimed to be an executive of a nationalised bank and asked the trader whether he was interested in getting the bank’s credit card.
The scammer then told him that he would make a video call to give further instructions on completing the formalities to get the credit card. The complainant then received a WhatsApp video call and the caller induced him to click on an icon after which his phone got hacked, said the police.
Subsequently, the device automatically got switched off and started again after 20 minutes. However, as soon as the phone turned on, it was flooded with bank messages, including one-time passwords and transaction alerts. When the man checked his bank statement, he was shocked to learn that Rs 2.7 lakh had been debited.
A case has been registered under section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act, the police said, adding that they are trying to ascertain how the fraudster managed to hack the device.
