Rourkela, Aug. 3: Police have appealed to the people what the banks and the RBI have been saying for a long time — do not to fall prey to frauds by divulging ATM or debit card passwords to anyone over phone.

Superintendent of police, Rourkela, Amitendra Nath Sinha has made the appeal after a Udit Nagar resident was cheated of Rs 30,000. He received a call from a person who posed himself as an official of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and sought his ATM PIN number. Soon after he responded to the call, Rs 30,000 was drawn from his account.

A senior police officer of the Udit Nagar police station said the man, who has an account with a public sector bank, got the call from an unknown number where the caller identified himself to be from the RBI.

“When the caller sought the details of his bank account, including the password of his ATM card citing it needs to be changed, the victim provided him all the details. Within few minutes, he came to know that he has lost his money,’ the officer said. However, he did not divulge the details of the complainant.

Sinha said that despite several awareness programmes undertaken by the banks, including the RBI and law enforcement agencies, these frauds manage to find gullible people and cheat them easily.

Sinha through the Facebook page of Rourkela police has appealed to the residents to be aware of such calls and not become an easy prey.

“In case one gets such calls, he or she should not divulge any such details related to the bank account to anyone. Besides, they should visit the bank and be in touch with the officials and seek their help. People must be aware of such things for the security of their own hard earned money and they must educate their friends and relatives about such fraudulent activities,” he said.

He even added that people should know that banks do not seek such personal details from its customers and people should be aware of this.

S.M. Muduli, inspector in-charge of Udit Nagar police station, said a team had been formed to probe the fraud.