The wife of a senior IPS officer in Odisha fell victim to cybercrime as online fraudsters managed to draw ₹10.10 lakh from her bank account.
Anuja Tripathy, wife of Susanta Kumar Nath, who is Inspector General of Police in Border Security Force, lodged a complaint at cybercrime police station stating that a large number of transactions (about 31 so far) had taken place in her account and ₹10.10 lakh was siphoned off.
“At no point in time did I receive any message regarding fraudulent transactions. Moreover, some transactions are up to ₹90,000 which is much beyond the limit for transactions fixed by me. Since I am not regularly operating this account and only my salary is being credited into, I had no clue regarding these fraudulent transactions and siphoning off my hard earned money,” alleged Ms. Tripathy.
She had blocked the debit card after noticing unauthorized transaction of ₹2,000 in 2019 but subsequently, the card was unblocked following bank verification.
The cybercrime police at Cuttack have begun an investigation after registering a case under Section 379 of the IPC.
Recently, fraudsters hacked into the phone number of Chief Executive Officer of Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) — a premier State-run IT agency — and managed to steal ₹7 lakh by sending phishing messages.
Colleagues of Manoj Patnaik, CEO of OCAC alleged they received distress message from latter’s number and deposited money in the account number mentioned in WhatsApp messages.
Subsequently, Crime Branch of State police conducted investigation. Nigerian national Okwudiri Paschal was arrested by Delhi police from Bangalore in connection with OCAC case.
