MUMBAI: A fashion designer lost nearly Rs 3 lakh of her family's money while trying to help out a carpenter who was a potential target of a cyber fraudster. A criminal offence has been lodged at Malad police station.
The 26-year-old fashion designer lives at Malad West with her family. She had hired a carpenter to make furniture at her home. On Tuesday morning, while the carpenter was at work, he received a text message from an unknown number to say that electricity supply at his home would be disconnected as he hadn’t paid the bill.
A phone number was mentioned in the text and the carpenter dialled it. But he couldn’t understand what the person at the other end was saying. He handed over the phone to the fashion designer and requested her to speak on his behalf.
The man claimed to be from the electricity supply company and asked the fashion designer to download an app called Quick Support. She did not know that the app would give him remote access to the screen of the carpenter’s phone.
He asked her to pay Rs 10 to avoid electric supply from being disconnected. She added her father’s debit card number and paid Rs 10. But soon after, three more transactions took place and about Rs 70,000 was debited to her father's account.
The fashion designer confronted the fraudster about the deductions at which he offered to refund her the money through her digital wallet. “He then asked her to download the Quick Support app on her handset which she did, providing him remote access to her phone as well. This time, three debit transactions of a total amount of Rs 2.24 lakh were effected to her account,” said a police officer.
The fraudster then disconnected the call and his phone was swtiched off.
The fashion designer then rushed to Malad police station the same day and lodged a complaint of cheating.
