Panchkula: Man posing as bank employee steals retd Lt Gen’s ₹5 lakh

Posing as a bank representative visiting him to collect his insurance premium, a fraudster duped a retired army officer of ₹5.11 lakh.

The victim, Lt Gen Kulwant Singh Mann (retd), a resident of Sector 4, MDC, Panchkula, told the police that he had purchased an insurance policy for his son in 2021, with an annual premium of ₹5.11 lakh.

Generally, a representative from HDFC Life Insurance office in Sector 43 would collect the payment cheque from his house. But in March, he got a call to pay the premium online.

As he was not tech savvy, he requested the bank to send a representative home as per previous practice. On March 29, a man showed up his house, claiming to be an HDFC representative. So, he handed over the cheque to him. Stating that the next few days were going to be bank holidays, the man asked him to instruct the bank to prepare and send the money through online RTGS transaction, which he did.

On April 3, he got a call from HDFC Life Insurance that the payment was still due. Therefore, he visited SBI on April 6 to check his account for the RTGS transaction, and was told that the payment had been sent to YES Bank at New Delhi instead of HDFC Life Insurance, and the transferred money has been withdrawn.

Mann then approached the police, who registered a case under Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code at the Mansa Devi Complex police station on Wednesday.

Woman loses ₹1 lakh to ‘friend facing medical emergency’

Chandigarh A 47-year-old woman from Sector 16 also fell prey to a fraudster who posed as her acquaintance and made her transfer ₹1 lakh to a bank account citing medical emergency.

The woman, in her complaint addressed to the Chandigarh SSP, stated, “I have been cheated by a group of people who impersonated my acquaintance on April 10 and convinced me to transfer a large amount of money to their bank account. The caller told me that money was required to get someone operated in a hospital.”

The complainant, who works in the private sector, said despite her reluctance, the caller made over 20 calls to her, pushing her to transfer the money with the promise to return the money within 24 hours.

Surrendering to the pressure, she initially transferred ₹20,000 and then ₹80,000 more in good faith. “The next day they called me again and informed that their life was in danger and thus, they couldn’t return her money. I was cheated,” the complainant added.

Police have booked the unknown accused under Sections 384 (extortion), 419 (cheating by personation ), 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at the Cyber Crime police station.