A 32-year-old woman who wanted to send a rakhi to her cousin in America lost Rs 43,000 to a cyber-fraudster, who impersonated a courier company executive and induced her to download a remote access app on her phone, following which money was siphoned off from her bank account.
According to the Malad police, the complainant stays with her family at Shankar Lane in Kandivali and works in a mobile gallery in Malad. On July 14, she surfed the internet for some courier services so that she could send a rakhi to a cousin living in California. The complainant came across a contact number of a courier company and called to enquire about the charges for sending a rakhi to America. The courier company executive informed her that she would have to pay Rs 360 as courier charges. The fraudster also said that he would send her a link on which she would have to share her pick-up address and pay a charge of a siphoned, the police said.
The accused then sent a link to the complainant, after which she shared her address using the link. The accused then asked her to share her e-payment gateway's PIN number on the link. The complainant initially refused to share this particular detail, after which the accused convinced her that this is a mandatory process to complete the booking. She then shared the said details via the link.
Minutes later, the accused sent another link. The complainant clocked on the link and a remote access app got downloaded on her phone, after which Rs 43,000 got debited from her bank account. The woman soon realised that she had been duped and visited her bank to seek details of the beneficiary account in which the money got transferred. She then approached the police and got a case registered against the unknown accused.
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