A 26-year-old man was duped of ₹32,000 on Friday morning by a person pretending to call from the Madhya Pradesh Secondary Education Board in connection with the scholarship the victim receives annually for pursuing higher education.

Indore resident Jayant Saxena, who works here, told the police that he believed the caller as the accused had his scholarship details. Claiming there was a technical issue in transfer of the ₹20,000 scholarship, the accused asked him for his account details and the one-time password (OTP). The accused then made three transactions from victim’s bank account. The matter was reported at Kasna police station.

Mr. Saxena told the police that he is pursuing masters in technology via distance learning and that he is the recipient of a scholarship for his meritorious score in Class XII from the Madhya Pradesh Secondary Education Board.

After the accused, who called around 10 a.m., managed get Mr. Saxena’s account details, the last six digits of his debit card number and the OTP, he made three back-to-back transactions from the victim’s account. Mr. Saxena received alerts messages within 10 minutes of the phone call.

“The accused told me that my linked account was facing an issue and unable to receive the transfer. He asked for details of another account, along with the last six digits of the debit card number. He told me that I will receive an OTP for verification. I shared the OTP with him. After the call ended, I received text messages regarding transactions from my bank account,” Mr. Saxena added.

Kasna police station SHO Sunil Kumar Singh said the complaint will be referred to the cyber cell for investigation.

“An FIR will be registered after a preliminary inquiry by the cyber cell,” Mr. Singh added.