Mumbai: Retired Finance Manager Foils Cyber Scam, Saves ₹50,000 After Falling Victim To Online KYC Fraud

Mumbai: In an interesting case, a 57-year-old retired man saved ₹50,000 out of the ₹2 lakhs he lost in an online KYC scam.

The victim, who worked as a finance manager, now retired, lives in the Mankhurd area of eastern Mumbai. On November 22, he transferred a sum of ₹5,000 from his one bank to another bank – of the Chembur branch. He did an online transaction, he said.

Victim shares OTP

After the transaction, nearly six hours later, he received a call, who addressed himself as an office bearer of the bank. The person said the transaction the victim made, that day morning, was unsuccessful. When asked why, he said, it was because the victim had failed to update his KYC. “I wanted to update my KYC, so I asked him how we go about it, and he suggested that I provide him with a One-Time Password (OTP) that I would receive on my phone. He also told me to keep the call on, and that he would share my Aadhar Card and PAN card details and I have to tell him if it’s right or not,” the victim said.

Fraudster assures victim his KYC would soon be updated

All the credentials of the victim the fraudster said were correct, and the victim ended up sharing yet another OTP with him, as he believed it was actually from his bank. The caller ended the phone after saying that the victim’s KYC would be soon updated. After the phone call, the victim opened his bank’s mobile application only to find that ₹2 lakh was debited from his account.

He redialled the caller, and asked him why the money was debited, to which the fraud said, “It would be sent back soon”. The victim kept calling him, and after some time he received a message from his bank saying a sum of ₹50,000 was credited to his account.

Confused, the victim contacted his bank and narrated the incident, who told him not to share OTPs with anyone, and that he was duped by cyber fraudsters.

The victim then registered a complaint with the National Cyber Online Portal and later approached the Mankhurd police to file a formal FIR against unknown persons.