Crime may have reduced in the backdrop of the lockdown but cyber criminals are still at large, operating through phones, computers and targeting unsuspecting residents. Their latest victim is 76-year-old Sudhir Chandra Nandy of Sector V, who got robbed of Rs 41,000 from his emergency fund.
On April 18, Nandy got a call from a person claiming to be from a bank he has an account in. “The man said I had to get my biometrics registered immediately or else I would lose access to the account,” says Nandy, a retired SAIL officer. The urgency in the midst of a pandemic seemed fishy to Nandy, but the crook kept him engaged in conversation for half an hour.
“My wife kept telling me from behind not to share any information with the caller. I knew this myself, having received such a call once before. Back then, I had managed to shrug the caller off but with advancing age my guard has lowered. He tricked me into sharing my CVV number (the three digits printed behind a debit card) and OTP (one-time-password received by text message to authenticate an online transaction). Within moments, Rs 21,000 got debited from the account, followed by Rs 10,000 twice,” he says.
A neighbour drove the beleaguered septuagenarian to the bank but due to the lockdown there was no one of authority there at the time. “They said what’s done is done and asked me to go to the cops,” says Nandy, who went to the cyber crime branch at the Bidhannagar north police station in DF Block. From there he was redirected to the thana of his area, in Sector V.
“By then, I was so upset my hands were trembling. I couldn’t even write the complaint letter. My neighbour had to do it for me. The money they took was from our emergency fund. I withdrew money from it a while back when my wife fell ill. As it is, we are facing a lot of difficulties without domestic help during the lockdown and now this,” he reflects.
New lures by crooks
The police officer overseeing the case says they got another complaint of a cyber crime during the lockdown. “A resident got a call from someone claiming to be from the mobile wallet company he used. The caller conned him into downloading a fake KYC (know your customer) app through which he siphoned off Rs 7,000,” said the officer, asking people not to fall for get-rich-quick schemes.
“The trap Nandy fell for is an age-old one. These days crooks are also offering cash back schemes but one has to realise that there are no free lunches. Don’t get greedy and use your common sense to stay alert.”
While the police registered a general diary (GD) for Nandy’s case, the officer concedes that it is extremely time-consuming to catch such criminals. “The modus operandi of such crooks is that upon receiving the stolen money they immediately route it to at least 200 different accounts. Tracing it is possible but very time-consuming,” he says.
Nandy is treating this experience as a lesson. “Maybe I won’t get the money back but I want to create an awareness so that no one else falls for such a scam again,” he says.
The man said I had to get my biometrics registered immediately or else I would lose access to the account Sudhir Chandra Nandy about the fraudulent caller