Retired bank manager loses ₹12.25 lakh to cyber fraudster in Gurugram, probe on

Police booked an unidentified man on Thursday evening for allegedly impersonating as an employee of the telecom company and duping a retired senior bank manager in Gurugram of ₹12.25 lakh on December 13 last year, officials said on Friday.

The victim, Ashoka Kumar Srivastava, 65, and a resident of Gurugram Sector 70A, on December 13, 2021, received a text message for verifying know your customer (KYC) details for his SIM card. When he called on that number, no one responded. Later that day, Srivastava got a phone call from the suspect, who asked the retired senior bank manager to install a remote access software application on his cellphone. After Srivastava downloaded the app, ₹12,25 lakh was transferred from his three bank accounts and a credit card, without his knowledge.

“I am a retired bank manager... I had no idea that I was becoming a victim of cyber fraud. The caller told me if I did not verify the KYC details, my SIM card would get blocked. I trusted him,” Srivastava said.

Srivastava told the caller that he was a senior citizen and did not have much knowledge about the technicality of verifying the KYC details for his SIM card. “He won my confidence by the way he conducted with me, and asked me to install the remote access software application on my cellphone, following which I lost ₹12,25 lakh from my accounts and credit card,” he added.

A big amount of the total money being stolen was transferred from Srivastava’s bank accounts after he was asked to log into his Internet banking app, police said.

“As the suspect had the control of my cellphone with the help of the remote access software application, he deleted all the text messages about the bank transactions and also the call log,” said an officer of the cybercrime police station in Gurugram Sector 43.

An FIR was registered against the suspect under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 420 (cheating) and Section 66 (punishment for dishonest or fraudulent act) of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008, at the cybercrime police station in Sector 43 on Thursday evening, police said.

An investigation has been launched and we are trying to nab the suspect at the earliest, said the police.