Mumbai teenager thwarts cyber fraud, saves parents from financial loss; here’s what happened

A 13-year-old girl from Nalasopara in Maharashtra's Palghar district managed to thwart a cyber fraud attempt on June 11 after receiving fake money transfer alert messages on her mother’s phone, according to a report by the Hindustan Times.

Despite the fraudster's efforts, the quick-thinking teenager managed to outsmart him. According to the report, the Virar Police registered a case of attempted scam against the unknown individual.

Nalasopara is part of the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). 

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As it happened

Class eight student Harshada Goyal was home alone on June 11 when she answered a call on her mother Megha's phone. According to the report, her father was at home, and her mother was at the market.

Harshada answered the call from a man who introduced himself as Ashok Sharma and claimed he needed to pay her father ₹15,000, for which he was given Megha's number for the transfer.

At first, the teen did not suspect anything amiss, as the caller told her he had transferred the money and asked her to check for a confirmation message. She saw a message indicating that ₹10,000 had been sent, and the caller told her he would send the remaining ₹5,000 sometime. Harshada soon received a message that ₹50,000 had been transferred to her mother's account.

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The fraudster claimed he had added an extra zero by mistake and requested Harshada return ₹45,000, at which point the girl sensed something was wrong. She checked her mother's bank account and saw no money had been deposited. She informed the caller that they had not received any money. She also suggested putting her father on a conference call to confirm the caller's identity. He, however, insisted she quickly transfer the money, claiming he had other payments to make.

Harshada clocked the fraud and threatened to call her father, but the caller insisted that the payment would be reflected soon.

“I realised he was a fraud after I checked my mother’s bank account online. The police had given a lecture in our school about cyber frauds and their methods, so I knew something was wrong,” Harshada told HT.

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She put the caller on hold and contacted the police using a neighbour's phone. She also recorded the conversation in which the fraudster kept urging her to transfer the ₹45,000.

The Nalasopara police have taken action based on the teenager’s statement and the call recording. “We are tracing the fraud based on the mobile phone from which Harshada received the call,” said a police officer from Nalasoapara police station.