MUMBAI: A post-graduate student recently lost Rs 4.7 lakh in an online banking fraud after she made a call to a number that an internet search threw up for a nationalised bank. The 22-year-old victim from Andheri lost the money that she had saved to pay her hostel and college fees in the Netherlands.
The police registered an FIR against an unknown person on July 28. The student had resorted to the internet search to gain information on how her fund transfer limit could be increased.
The scammer made the woman download the ‘AnyDesk’ app, a remote desktop application that provides access to personal computers and other devices running the host application.
“We have sought the fraudulent transaction details from the nationalised bank to track the money trail to nab the accused. Also, the cyber team is tracking the call details to locate the scammer,” said a police officer from the Andheri police station.
The money was fraudulently transferred between July 27 and 28 in three transactions. The first two transactions were done on July 27 for Rs 99,999 and Rs 3,11,800. The third was completed the next day and Rs 25,000 was moved out before the victim called the bank and blocked her account.
In the complaint, the victim said: “I lost the money after the scammer claimed to be a bank tele-caller and made me download the app to increase my banking transaction limit for Rs1 lakh and above. I came across the number through a Google search and I found it under the name of the nationalised bank. I disconnected the call and uninstalled the app on when I started receiving transactions alerts after money got debited from my account.”
A police officer said the transactions were fraudulently credited to a bank account in the name of Lokesh Kumar Shah and to e-wallets.
