Vishing spree: Fifteen cheated of Rs 4 lakh in Mumbai

IN AN indicator of the rising number of vishing cases, Mulund police on Thursday registered an FIR, in which 15 people have been named as victims. The victims, all residents of Mulund, were allegedly cheated by callers over the past few months. The victims have lost a collective amount of Rs 4.5 lakh and the police suspect the involvement of the same gang in all the cases.

An officer from Mulund police station said the original complainant was one Shantanu Likhite (43), who works at a logistics company in Sahar. Last month, Likhite received a call from a man who identified himself as R K Sharma and claimed to be the manager of the bank where Likhite had an account. “The caller told me that my debit card number was going to be closed down. To avoid that, he asked me to give my debit card number,” Likhite stated in his complaint.

Soon, the caller took other card details, including the One Time Password. The caller told Likhite that he would receive three messages on his mobile phone, which he should immediately delete. Likhite followed the instructions and deleted the messages that would have informed him about the illegal transactions. But the next day, when Likhite approached his bank, he was told no such call was made. He found there had been several unauthorised transactions on his account and approached Mulund police.

At the police station, he met 14 others who had been cheated in a similar manner. An officer from Mulund police station said, “It appears that all the victims have been cheated by the same gang as the modus operandi is similar in all cases. We suspect the data of the bank has been compromised and the accused have used the data to contact unsuspecting account holders. The total amount lost by the 15 complainants is Rs 4.42 lakh.” The police clubbed the 15 complaints and registered an FIR against unidentified persons on charges of cheating and sections of the Information Technology Act.

Vishing — an act where callers attempt to scam receiver into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. “We are trying to find out how the data of so many people was compromised from the bank. Since there are several common links in all cases, we are hopeful of tracking down the accused,” said an officer.