An executive from IIT Bombay has become the latest victim of cyber fraud, resulting in a loss of ₹4.8 lakhs from her bank account.
The victim, a 57-year-old woman serving as the administrative superintendent at IIT Bombay, reported the incident to the Vikhroli police, stating that it occurred on October 30 of the previous year. On that day, her 60-year-old husband was admitted to the Godrej Hospital in Vikhroli, specifically in the intensive care unit (ICU).
While inside the ward, the victim had her husband's mobile phone. "I received a call from an unknown number claiming to be from ICICI bank, informing me that our credit card would be charged ₹50,000," she mentioned in her statement.
The caller instructed the victim to click on a link he would send her to input certain details about her credit card, purportedly to prevent the charge. Anxiously, she followed the caller's instructions. Immediately after doing so, she received three messages from her bank, indicating that transactions of ₹1,020.75, ₹1,890.73, and ₹1,890.73 had been debited from her account. The police reported that a total of ₹4,80,221 was taken from her account by unknown fraudsters.
Victim blocks her card
After realising she had been deceived, the victim promptly contacted the bank to block her card. The bank initially informed her that the transactions were not successful. However, when she reached out again on November 1, she was told that the transactions had indeed occurred. The victim filed a written complaint with the police, subsequently converted into a first information report (FIR) on Friday evening. The FIR includes charges of cheating and violations of the Information Technology Act against unknown individuals. The Vikhroli police have initiated an investigation into the matter.
