A 72-year-old man who is putting up alone lost his hard-earned savings at the fag end of his life as he fell victim of cyber fraud of Rs 11 lakh.
Taking swift action, the Ludhiana cyber cell police has registered a case under section 319 (2) and 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for impersonation and cheating.
The incident occurred on the evening of September 17, when the victim Rakesh Khanna a resident of Dr Sham Singh Road Ludhiana wished to lodge a complaint about the inordinate delay in the delivery of the LPG cylinder. Since helpline 1906 was not working he searched online from Google and landed in the trap of online fraudsters who posed himself as customer care executive from Indane.
During the conversation the fraudster won the trust of the senior citizen and told him to share Rs 10 for KYC fees- stating payment was part of a latest government guideline for availing subsidy and delivery of cylinders. The fraudster sent a particular link on WhatsApp. Soon after making an online payment of Rs 10, Rakesh Khanna found Rs 11 syphoned from his bank account.
The money was transferred -in each having Rs 50000 denomination- into 22 separate bank accounts including Bandhan Bank, Axis bank, NSDL Payment Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Central Bank of India, Union Bank, Indian Bank and HDFC Bank. The money was withdrawn majorly in Assam, Mumbai, Delhi and Rajasthan.
Khanna who was suffering from a leg fracture somehow, managed to reach out to AU Bank Mall Road and stopped the payments. He said that even the bank’s so-called “robust cyber security” system could not avert the transactions. He said that he did not receive a call from the bank’s cyber society department which could avert the payments.He has urged the Information and Broadcasting ministry to direct google to take down the fake websites of LPG companies and urged companies to spread awareness among people about the fake website.
He has also urged the ministry of finance to give banking licenses only to those banks having a strong cyber security which detects murky payments, calls the customers- especially when and clears the payments.
