Sr citizen looking for dishwasher customer care no loses ₹8.24 lakh to cyber thugs

A Noida-based senior citizen couple lost ₹8.24 lakh from their savings to cyber thugs while hunting for a dishwasher company’s customer care number on the Internet. After the couple lodged an FIR at the local sector 126 police station, the police has launched an investigation into the matter, officials said on Thursday (February 23).

The couple, who live in a farmhouse in Sector 133 claimed that the fraud took place on January 22 and 23. According to the complainant Amarjeet Singh, his wife Rajinder Arora was searching for the customer care number of IFB dishwasher on Google, on the afternoon of January 21.

According to Singh, his wife had found a number 1800258821, which showed up as IFB customer care. “The same number now however shows as customer care number for Bandhan Bank. When my wife called up this number, a woman received the call and said she would connect my wife to her senior officer,” he said.

“Later, the senior officer asked my wife to download AnyDesk app on her phone, share some details like her location and a four-digit code which was displayed on the app. He then said a fee of ₹10 was required to be transferred from her bank account to register the complaint,” the senior citizen said.

Also read: How a Rajasthan farmer took on cybercriminals sans police help

During the process, the phone call got disconnected multiple times but the “senior officer” kept calling his wife back to complete the process from his personal number, which is switched off now, he added.

“By around 4.15 pm, we got a message on phone from our bank, informing us of that ₹ 2.25 lakh have been debited from our joint bank account… The next morning, we saw another text message informing us of a debit of ₹5.99 lakh from the account,” Singh alleged.

The complainant also raised concern that after the first fraudulent transaction, he had informed the bank manager about the issue and was assured the joint account has been frozen. Despite that, more money got illegally withdrawn from it. He said he had also reported the incident to the national cyber crime reporting portal cybercrime.gov.in on January 22.

“We are a senior citizen couple, we rely on our savings and the interest on the fixed deposits in the bank,” the 70-year-old man stated in his complaint, urging action by the police.

Also read: Over 100% increase in cyber crime in Delhi during 2020-21

The police said they have lodged the FIR and started investigation.

“The FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code Section 420 (cheating) and provisions of the Information Technology Act. The case has been referred to the IT Cell for further investigation and action,” Sector 126 police station in-charge Satyendra Kumar told PTI.

The police, meanwhile, urged citizens to report any cyber offence immediately to the national helpline number 1930 or to 112. Noida and Greater Noida residents can also use the local polices dedicated helpline number 0121 4846100 to report any cyber offence.