BackFraudster impersonates customer care person; defrauds elderly of ₹37 lakh
The fraudster extracted the bank account details of the victim in the name of updating his address and also guided him to download a remote access app on his mobile phone
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A fraudster impersonated a customer care person of a bank and defrauded a Gurugram resident of ₹37 lakh, according to a report by Hindustan Times, Livemint's sister publication.
As per the daily, the victim received two messages within a gap of a few hours regarding the delivery status of his credit card and subsequently was cheated of ₹37.6 lakh, which included money in his savings account and fixed deposits.
The police said that Harish Chander, 76, a resident of New Gurugram, received an SMS on 23 October this year, stating that his new credit card was undelivered to his address. But within a few hours, he received another SMS saying that the card was delivered.
Chander then got worried and searched for the customer care number of the credit card issuing bank on the internet. After doing a Google search, the victim got a number highlighted as ‘customer care’ of the concerned bank.
The police told the daily that the victim called the number that he found on the internet and it was received by a suspect, impersonating a customer care officer.
The fraudster extracted the bank account details of Chander in the name of updating his address and also guided him to download a remote access app on his mobile phone.
Chander said that he earlier lived in Old Gurugram and shifted to a new residence a couple of years back.
“The suspect, in order to win my confidence, said that the call was being recorded for security reasons and I don’t have to worry. I failed to comprehend that it was a fraudster and lost all my life’s savings," Chander told the daily.
Police has registered under sections 43A, 66, and 66D of the Information Technology (IT) Act and Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Cybercrime police station in Manesar on Monday.
Investigations are underway to trace the location of the fraudster.
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