Approached in ‘golden hour’, police recovers Rs 1.61 lakh lost in cyber-fraud

The Malad Police recently helped a 37-year-old woman recover Rs 1.61 lakh she had lost to a cyber fraudster who had transferred the amount by stealing her bank details on the pretext of updating her Know Your Customer (KYC) details.

The police said the woman approached them quickly after the fraud, which enabled them to reverse the transaction.

The 37-year-old, an LIC agent, approached the cops on July 13 soon after after being duped. She told the police she had received a message, purportedly sent by her mobile network service provider. The message said she had not updated her KYC details, and her mobile connection would be disconnected. The message had a number, which the woman dialled.

The fraudster then made her download an application which gave him access to her phone activities. He then made her transfer Rs 10. When she was making the transaction, he got access to her bank details. He later used these details to transfer Rs 1.61 lakh to himself.

The complainant rushed to the Malad police station, and the police got in touch with the e-wallet company from where her money was transferred, and got the transaction reversed.

Vivek Tambe, Assistant Police Inspector of Malad police station said, “We could recover the entire amount as she approached us within a few hours time, which we term the ‘golden hours’. The most important thing in such cases is to carry your bank statement to the police station so that the police know details of the bank account or e-wallet, where the money is transferred, making it easy for us to stop the money from being withdrawn.”

The police said cyber-fraudsters often make their victims download TeamViewer or QuickSupport applications in order to get remote access or remote control of your mobile phone, following which they steal your banking details and use it to transfer money from your bank accounts.