Woman loses Rs 4 lakh in online fraud in Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city cyber police have started an investigation into the incident in which a Vattiyoorkavu-based woman lost Rs 4 lakh from her bank account through an online fraud.
Sunithakumari (44) of Kavunkal Mana near Vattiyoorkavu received a phone call at 3 pm on Thursday from an unknown number introducing the person as the bank staff. After asking some details, the woman was asked to share an OTP received on her mobile. After sharing the same, the call got disconnected and later at 4:30 pm she started receiving messages in a two minute gap that Rs 2 lakhs were debited from her account twice. Soon a case was filed at Vattiyoorkavu police station and police handed over the case to city cyber police for further probe.
Sunitha works as a housekeeper and her husband Gopakumar works as a driver at a private school. She said the amount was from a recent sale of property they did to meet the expenses of their daughter’s marriage.
“Since the call was received from the number given by the bank, I did not suspect anything. The marriage of my daughter is scheduled to be held on September 10. The amount we lost was our only hope, and we do not know what to do now,” said Sunitha.