Teacher falls for Jan-Dhan con, loses Rs 50,000 in Hubballi

Basavaraj Kattimani | TNN | Updated: Apr 15, 2020, 12:28 IST

Representative Image

HUBBALLI: Unidentified cybercrooks duped a woman of Rs 50,890 by posing as a bank official and obtaining her account details on the pretext of depositing lockdown relief package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the complainant, the woman, a retired teacher, received a call from a man who identified himself as a bank official.
The man requested the woman to share the One Time Password (OTP) to her bank account in order to deposit Rs 2,000 — the relief package announced for women during the lockdown to her account.
The woman shared the OTP to the caller, following which the amount was siphoned of via three transactions on April 11.
Hubballi cyber crime police station inspector Prabhugouda D K said they are investigating the case. “Earlier, fraudsters would steal money under the guise of activating their blocked ATMs, taking deposit for jobs etc, but now fraudsters are targeting woman who are now eagerly waiting for money to be transferred to their Jan-Dhan account holders. It is not yet known whether the complainant has a Jan-Dhan account,” he added.
“We suspect fraudster might have got the mobile number of the complainant from online data, or she might have been a random target. Bank authorities have said that the complainant’s mobile may have been hacked by the fraudsters, but we are not yet convinced by the theory. We also suspect involvement of bank staff. So we are investigating this case in many angles,” he added.