Ghaziabad: 2 give ATM card details to ‘bank exec’, duped

GHAZIABAD: Even though banks and police periodically urge customers not to share their bank account and ATM card details with anyone over the phone, a large number of people keep falling into the traps of fake callers. Two such cases were reported in the city on Saturday.

In the first case, Rs 30,000 was withdrawn from the account of a businesswoman. Shivani Singh, a resident of Sanjay Nagar’s Sector 23 who owns a health centre, said she received a call from a person who posed as an HDFC Bank representative on Friday evening. “The caller said my debit card would be blocked within two days if I did not update my details according to a new policy. He asked for the card’s last six digits and its validity. My son had received the call and he told him the last digits, but not the expiry date as it was not visible. Later, I realised that Rs 30,000 had been withdrawn from my account,” Singh told cops.

Army jawan Maharaj Singh, a resident of Gautam Budh Nagar, was similarly duped on February 5. Over Rs 44,000 was siphoned off from his SBI Bank account in six installments. Both of the victims filed complaints with police on Saturday. FIRs in both cases were registered against the accused, who haven’t been identified, under sections 379 (theft) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC at Kavi Nagar police station on Saturday.

Ghaziabad cyber cell in-charge Baljeet Singh said tracing such callers is easy, but catching them is difficult as they they often operate from other states. “Moreover, they use fake identity documents while buying SIM cards to avoid detection,” he said.