Ranchi: A retired banker was swindled out of Rs 25,000 by cyber frauds, the money being siphoned off from her bank savings account to a Paytm wallet on Saturday.
Putul Das (70), a former employee of Allahabad Bank and a customer of the lender's Main Road branch, had received a call from an unknown number in the afternoon.
Identifying himself as an official of the Main Road branch, the caller said Putul needed to update her KYC details and sought her debit card number. The septuagenarian gave him her card number and the one-time password (OTP) that was messaged to her.
"My wife did not suspect anything as the caller seemed to know her bank account number. Also, the Truecaller app showed the mobile number belonged to a bank," said Putul's husband S.R. Das, a special public prosecutor for the Enforcement Directorate and a resident of Pepee Compound near Sujata Chowk.
Putul didn't receive a mobile alert and contacted the bank sometime later only to be told that Rs 25,000 had been fraudulently withdrawn from her account.
"She visited the bank to give a stop-payment instruction and block the debit card. I am an ED lawyer and regularly deal with money laundering cases. I am aware of the modus operandi of cyber criminals. Ironically, these people managed to con my wife," Das said.
A complaint filed by Putul at Chutia police station on Saturday evening was converted into an FIR on Sunday.
"We have registered a case under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC and Section 66D (punishment for cheating by impersonation by using computer resource) of the IT Act," said Chutia OC Anil Kumar Karn.
He added that since cyber crime experts would not be available till Monday, which is a government holiday, investigations were likely to begin from Tuesday. "The call detail record of the victim's mobile phone and the Paytm wallet will be probed."
Abduction threat
Chief engineer of road construction department Ras Bihari Singh on Sunday lodged a complaint at Sukhdeonagar thana, alleging that his son Yash has been receiving anonymous calls for the last four days.
The caller has been threatening Yash that his father will be abducted. Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta said the caller had been identified as one Ajay Paswan, a resident of Koderma, and efforts were on to arrest him.
