Retd Swedish varsity prof duped of ₹12 lakh

MUMBAI: A 65-year-old retired biotechnology professor has been duped of ₹12 lakh by unidentified cyber frauds who impersonated officials from the human resources department of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). The professor’s 90-year-old father used to work at ONGC and the frauds siphoned off the money from his account after gaining access to his mobile phone under the pretext of updating his medical insurance records, said police.

According to the police, the complainant, a former professor at a Swedish university, lives in Versova with her father. On March 19, her father received a call from an unknown number, which had the ONGC logo as the profile photo. Since he could not make much sense of what the caller was saying due to his old age, the person called again at night and sought to speak to his daughter. He then identified himself as Kuldeep Srivastava from the human resources department at ONGC’s Bandra office told her that her father’s medical insurance coverage had not been approved.

The professor asked the caller about what needed to be done and the latter directed her to download a ‘Customer Support’ app on her father’s mobile. She complied and followed further instructions from the fraud, including entering her father’s bank account details on the app, which gave him access to the mobile screen.

The caller then asked her to transfer a small amount from her father’s account for verification purposes. She transferred ₹10, and later, ₹1.93 lakh, which the caller said would be refunded.

“When the professor checked her father’s bank account the next day, she found that fraudulent transactions worth ₹10 lakh and realised that she had been duped,” said a police officer.

She then submitted a written complaint at the west cyber police station, based on which a case was registered against an unknown person.

“We are searching for the accused based on the financial transactions,” added the officer quoted earlier.