Odisha teacher falls prey to cyber theft, loses Rs 50,000

The victim Himanshu Sekhar Nayak, lodged a complaint with the Jajpur police after being robbed of Rs 50,000 in cyber theft.
For representational purposes (Express Illustrations)
For representational purposes (Express Illustrations)

JAIPUR: A teacher from Baidyarajpur village in Jajpur police limits was robbed of Rs 50,000 by cyber thieves who used his mobile number registered with the bank to get one-time password (OTP) to siphon-off the money from his account.

The victim Himanshu Sekhar Nayak, in his complaint lodged with the local police, said he had visited an ATM in Jajpur town to withdraw Rs 10,000 from his Punjab National Bank account last week.

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Although the cash was not dispensed by the ATM, he received an SMS on his mobile phone that the amount was debited from his account. 

Nayak then went to his bank and lodged a complaint in this regard. He was given a reference number and told that the issue will be resolved within seven working days.

The teacher said he then received a call on his mobile number registered with the bank on Friday. “The caller identified himself as a bank official and revealed my complaint number, bank account number and amount deducted from the account. I trusted him as he had all the details,” he said.

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The caller then gave Nayak a mobile number and asked him to send the OTP on it. Nayak complied with the caller’s instructions and found that the latter had transferred Rs 50,000 from his account in 10 transactions using the OTPs.

“The cyber thief obtained the mobile number of the account holder registered with the bank. He then used it to receive the OTP from the bank to add beneficiaries in the net banking list and the transaction was processed at once.

Through 10 transactions, a total of Rs 50,000 was transferred from the victim’s account,” said a police official.

A case has been registered and investigation is on.

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