MUMBAI: A homemaker lost nearly Rs 12 lakh to a cyberfraudster who posed as a bank employee and convinced her to download an app that gave him remote access to her phone screen in Mumbai's Andheri.
The woman told the police that she and her senior citizen husband survived on funds sent by their two children who are based abroad. The Cyber Police have registered an FIR and are probing further.
The 58-year-old woman lives in Andheri West with her 66-year-old husband. She has a son and a daughter, who reside with their families in North America and Central America. On November 11, the woman was transferring funds from one of her bank accounts into the other online. She was able to transfer Rs 5 lakh but couldn't transfer any further. She then looked up online for the customer care number of the bank. She found two numbers, but one wasn't getting connected. A man answered, when she dialled the other number, and introduced himself as a bank employee. After she explained the issue, he asked her for her WhatsApp number. He then dialled on her WhatsApp number and instructed her to download an app called AnyDesk. Unknown to her, this app provided him with remote access to her phone screen.
She downloaded the app and accepted his request. She logged into her bank account with her login ID and password. Within minutes, three transactions were made from her account by an unknown person and Rs 10.35 lakh was transferred out. Aghast, she inquired with the caller but he insisted she would get a refund.
"Further, the fraudster asked her to login into her second bank account. He had managed to view the login ID and passwords of both her accounts through the AnyDesk app. This time, she lost Rs 1.34 lakh in six transactions. The fraudster told her this amount too would be refunded," said a police officer. The fraudster disconnected the WhatsApp call and made an audio call on her other number. He urged her to download the AnyDesk app on this number too and follow his instructions if she wanted a refund of the total Rs 11.69 lakh that she had lost. But the woman sensed something amiss and paid no heed. On November 14, she approached the Cyber Police with a written application. An FIR, under provisions of IPC and Information Technology Act, was registered on November 17.
