Delhi: Victim claims hypnotised on call, lost ₹40,000

A 40-year-old freelance journalist has claimed that a person “hypnotised” him over the phone and duped him of ₹40,000, but police and experts said this was one of the “most normal kinds of cyber fraud” and not a case of hypnosis.

Ramesh Kumar Raja lodged an FIR with the Delhi Police on April 25 detailing the alleged crime.

“The caller pretended to be known to me and during the telephone conversation, he hypnotised me (diverted my mind and thought process) to get fraudulent transactions of ₹40,000 in two phases of ₹20,000 each from my bank account via Paytm UPI,” Raja said.

Also read: Delhi: Man loses ₹1.70L after fraudsters gain access to bank-linked mobile number

He claimed that on March 7 he received a call from an unknown person who was polite and friendly.

“I told him that I didn’t know who he was. Then he politely said, no no, please guess who I am. How can you forget me? Since his voice resembled that of a friend of mine who is a doctor, I asked him if he was the one and he said, Yes, now you have recognised me correctly,” Raja told the police.

(With inputs from agencies)