Greater Noida: Caller poses as Punjab National Bank customer care executive, steals over Rs 1 lakh
Greater Noida: A 35-year-old man was allegedly duped of over Rs 1 lakh by someone who called him posing as a Punjab National Bank customer care official, and obtained an OTP from him.
On September 29, the victim Kuldeep a resident of Chhapraula in Surajpur, went to an ATM in his neighbourhood to withdraw Rs 5,000 but the cash was not dispensed because of an outage.
However, the money was deducted from his account.
To report this, he immediately called the helpline number provided on the debit card and was reassured that the money will be credited to his account soon.
Two days later, he received a call from someone who identified himself as a customer care official of the bank. “He told me that he is facilitating the transfer of my money and asked to share the One Time Password (OTP),” he said.
After some time, Kuldeep found out that Rs 1.14 lakh has been withdrawn from his account in two transactions. “After knowing the OTP, he said that the server is down and I will soon receive the message of the money transfer. But the SMS I received said that Rs 1.14 lakh has been debited from my account,” said Kuldeep, who runs a salon in Satya Enclave.
To report this, he immediately called the helpline number provided on the debit card and was reassured that the money will be credited to his account soon.
Two days later, he received a call from someone who identified himself as a customer care official of the bank. “He told me that he is facilitating the transfer of my money and asked to share the One Time Password (OTP),” he said.
After some time, Kuldeep found out that Rs 1.14 lakh has been withdrawn from his account in two transactions. “After knowing the OTP, he said that the server is down and I will soon receive the message of the money transfer. But the SMS I received said that Rs 1.14 lakh has been debited from my account,” said Kuldeep, who runs a salon in Satya Enclave.
The victim called the bank again and found that he has been made the victim of online fraud. “A bank official told me that the money has been sent to a Union Bank of India account. I shared the transaction details with the police and requested to file an FIR in the case,” he said.
He suspects that his account activity information was leaked by the bank officials because the fraudster knew his account balance and other details.
Jeetendra Deekhit, the SHO of Surajpur police station told TOI that an FIR under sections 420 (cheating) and 66 Of the IT Act have been lodged. “We are probing the matter. A similar case was reported a few days ago by a hotel management student and we are investigating whether both the cases are done by the same suspect or not. Arrests will be made soon,” said Deekhit.
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