Panchkula software engineer duped of ₹2.34 lakh in credit card fraud

A 27-year-old software engineer from Sector-15 has fallen prey to a sophisticated cyber fraud, losing ₹2.34 lakh. The cybercrime police have registered a case under Sections 316(2) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) following a complaint filed by the victim, Divya Sharma.

According to the complaint, Sharma received a phone call on April 17 around 3pm from an individual claiming to be a representative of ICICI bank. The caller informed her that a “credit card protection plan” had been activated on her card incurring a monthly charge of ₹2,499.

Sharma said that she had never subscribed to such a plan. The caller, however, insisted that the plan was a default feature linked to the credit card and that its charges would not appear immediately in her statements. Offering to deactivate the supposed plan, the fraudster sent a link to Sharma’s WhatsApp number and instructed her to fill in her personal details.

Trusting the process, Sharma entered the requested information and later shared a One-Time Password (OTP) she received on her mobile device. Moments later, she was notified of a debit of ₹99,785 from her account. When she raised concerns, the caller falsely assured her that the amount had only been held temporarily and would be credited back.

The caller went on to persuade Sharma to share OTPs two more times, resulting in further debits of ₹35,091 and ₹99,875. The fraudster maintained that the entire amount would be reversed to her credit card account.

Realising something was amiss, Sharma contacted ICICI bank’s customer care service and was informed that the total amount had been transferred to an unknown account. Sharma then immediately reported the incident to the national cybercrime reporting helpline at 1930. The cybercrime police have initiated an investigation into the case.