Staff Reporter

Panaji

Cyber criminals reportedly duped a senior citizen to the tune of around `3.87 lakh under the pretext of a pending electricity bill.

Ujjwal Thengdi, a former pilot and film-maker, said that he has a flat at Dabolim and stays there when he is in Goa.

He said that he is also the overseas president of the Narendra Modi Vichar Manch, a non-political body which was formed in 2009. He received a call from a number informing that the electricity supply of the Dabolim flat would be disconnected for non-payment of monthly electricity bill.

Thengdi said that he was surprised that even after paying the bills regularly he received such a call. Thengdi, who is 70 plus, not knowing that it was a scam, said that he only sent the scamster a copy of the receipt that was paid online through an app. The receipt had the transaction ID and amount that was paid. Soon, he received messages of money being debited from his account.

“By the time I could stop the transactions by calling the bank helpline, the scamsters had drained the account”, said Thengdi.

“I did not share the account details, passwords or any OTPs. I wonder how the cyber criminals could have got my financial details,” he said adding that “the financial system needs to be made robust and the banks should safeguard the hard earned money of people especially the senior citizens”.

He said that soon after he contacted 1930, the cyber crime helpline number.

However, he wasn’t happy over the response he received from the police authority.

“I feel that the process is very slow. Police could have been more proactive and handled the case quickly”, he said.

He also said that, “banks have to be made liable for the loss of money of innocent customers like us”.