Selimpur senior citizen loses Rs 48,000 in bank fraud

KOLKATA: In yet another instance of fraudsters using compromised personal data of their targets, a senior citizen from Selimpur area near Jodhpur Park allegedly lost more than Rs 48,000 through fraudulent transactions.
According to victim Dwjen Duttagupta (75), who had retired from ONGC a decade ago and now stays alone, he maintains two savings accounts with Bank Of India’s Jodhpur Park branch. “On April 3, during office hours, I received an anonymous call from an unknown number and was asked to confirm some of my particulars pertaining to my account. However, a couple of questions asked by the caller made me suspicious and thereafter I refused to answer him. Two minutes after I hung up, to my utter surprise, I got a message on my registered mobile regarding an unauthorized debit of Rs 24,240 from my first savings account,” said Duttagupta.

The septuagenarian said that the very next day he rushed to the branch manager and intimated him about the incident. At the same time, Duttagupta also submitted an application requesting the manager to block both his debit cards issued against the two accounts immediately. “As advised by the bank officers, I also lodged an FIR at Lake police station the same day,” he said. Five days later, he picked up a copy of FIR and handed it over to his branch.
However, he was not ready for what followed. “More than 25 days later, on April 30, I went to the bank to update my passbook pertaining to my second account. I was shocked to find that on April 4 — exactly a day after my first account was hacked — an amount of Rs 24,846 had been debited through an unauthorized transaction for which I did not receive any phone call or message on my registered mobile number. On May 3, I submitted another written complaint to the branch manager,” said Duttagupta, alleging that the bank had probably not blocked his cards on time.
“It is possible that the caller at the other end was able to hack in to his internet banking password through whatever data he got. It is also possible that the bank had acted late in blocking the debit cards. It is up to police to investigate,” said an anti-bank fraud official from Lalbazar. “I never used internet banking and don’t even have a password for the same,” the victim said.
An official from the bank told ToI that they have forwarded the claims of Duttagupta to their Mumbai headquarters. “This will be sorted in 45 days. In case the claim gets rejected, we will apply for insurance money. We are ascertaining if indeed there was a fraud where no OTP was used,” said a senior official from Bank of India.