India News | Senior Citizen Duped of Rs 6.49 Lakh by Cyber Thugs

Noida, Jun 6 (PTI) A Noida-based senior citizen has lost Rs 6.49 lakh to cyber criminals, who tricked him into downloading an app on his phone in order to make payment of electricity bill of his native house in Bihar, police officials said Monday.

The Noida police have lodged an FIR and launched an investigation into the matter which took place on Saturday with the senior citizen, who lives in Sector 40 of the city and runs his own construction business, the officials said.

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In his complaint to the police, Gordhan Das Khurwani (65) claimed that he got a call from an unknown number on Saturday in which the caller identified himself as a representative of the Bihar electricity.

“He told me that the power supply at my native home in Katihar district will be cut off today (June 4) since we have not registered ourselves on Bihar's electricity supply app,” Khurwani said.

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“Later I got a call from the same number in which I was asked by the called to make a payment of Rs 10 to complete my registration. I was sent a link to some mobile phone apps and asked to download it and I did that,” he said.

Soon, he said the SMS messages that came on his phone from his bank, HDFC, started getting deleted automatically because of which he restarted the device in order to fix the problem.

Khurwani claimed that upon restarting the device he checked and found that the mobile phone banking service of his account has been disabled and he cross-checked it on his laptop.

“I then called up officials of my bank branch in Patna where I was informed that Rs 6.49 lakh have been transferred from my account in multiple installments of various amounts and I realized the fraud that has happened with me,” the senior citizen said.

He said the bank officials told him to immediately call up their customer support number and get the ATM card blocked in order to prevent further loss.

On the basis of the complaint by him, an FIR has been lodged at the local Noida Sector 39 police station and an investigation has been launched in the case.

Officials said the FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating) and under provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

The police have, meanwhile, urged people to be cautious during online transactions and social media activities in order to avoid financial frauds or any other hassles.

The police also asked people to use dedicated helpline numbers 1930 or 112 to report any cyber-related case at the earliest.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)