AD Saravanan of Saidapet, who is employed at the Government Central

Press, received a phone call last October from a person claiming to represent South India Finance Pvt Ltd, offering to lend Rs 6 lakh from NRI funds. He also reportedly told him that the interest is just 1 per cent as he was visually challenged. After repeated phone calls, Saravanan agreed to get the loan and paid the money demanded in the name of advocate fee, advance, agent the commission, insurance, six months of EMI and income tax. After Saravanan paid Rs 3 lakh, the phone numbers he received calls from remained not reachable from December 2020. Saravanan who realised that he was cheated lodged a complaint at Saidapet police station. It was forwarded to the Central Crime Branch and the bank fraud prevention wing has now registered a case.

Since the victim said that all callers spoke to him in proper Tamil, police suspect that it could be a gang running a fake call centre to cheat the gullible on the pretext of offering loans.

Meanwhile, a 53-year-old man lost Rs 2 lakh by clicking open a

phishing link sent by fraudsters on the pretext of updating the ‘Know Your Customer’ forms. The victim, Balaji Singh of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, is an employee of Madras Fertilisers Ltd in Manali.

On Sunday, he received an SMS that said that his KYC had to be updated to continue using his bank account. Balaji Singh opened the link in the SMS and tried to enter his net banking user ID and password. Since it did not go through, he logged out. However, he received a phone call immediately and was asked to complete the update and download an app. “I have not downloaded any app, but still I received messages that money was debited from the account,” said Balaji Singh. He managed to block the account and report it to Thiru Vi Ka Nagar police and bank authorities. “I had borrowed the money for son’s higher education,” said Balaji Singh.