Ludhiana: Retired bank manager loses ₹10 lakh to cyber fraud
A retired manager of Punjab National Bank has fallen victim to a cyber fraud, losing ₹10 lakh from his bank account. The cybercrime police station of Khanna police lodged an FIR against the unidentified accused.
A retired manager of Punjab National Bank has fallen victim to a cyber fraud, losing ₹10 lakh from his bank account. The cybercrime police station of Khanna police lodged an FIR against the unidentified accused.
The complainant, Bhupinder Kumar Vij of Krishna Nagar in Khanna, said that the incident occurred on August 3 evening when he was scrolling on Facebook, and he came across a link on Facebook promising to help him create a credit card.
Upon clicking the link, he received a call on WhatsApp. The caller claimed to be an executive of a bank and instructed him to change certain settings on his phone. When Vij clicked on a link sent via WhatsApp following which his mobile screen was shared with the fraudster.
The caller kept Vij engaged in conversation, but soon Vij realised he was being scammed. He quickly transferred ₹1 lakh from one of his accounts to another to safeguard his money. Meanwhile, he tried to freeze his accounts through mobile banking but was unable to do so as the option to disable the account was not functioning. He then realised that the fraudster had already altered the settings via the shared screen.
In just 45 minutes, the fraudster managed to transfer ₹10 lakh from Vij’s account.
According to Vij, there were ₹2 lakh which were transferred from his own account, but later he discovered that the fraudsters had used his mobile banking app to check his credit score with Punjab National Bank and even applied for an ₹8 lakh loan.
The bank approved the loan within five minutes without any verification and deposited the amount into his account. The scammer then transferred this money to their own accounts.
Vij noted that no call or OTP was received for the loan approval, raising concerns about the bank’s verification process.
Inspector Vinod Kumar, who is investigating the case, said that an FIR under sections 318 (4), 319 (2) of BNS, sections 66C and 66 of Information and Technology Act has been lodged against the accused. The police are trying to trace the accused.
