HYDERABAD: A Lieutenant Colonel serving in the Indian Army, who was posted at Secunderabad, reportedly became a victim of cyber fraud and lost Rs 1.17 lakh in the process. The fraudster contacted him saying that his credit card payment, made through an app had failed, and under the pretext of assisting him in the completion of payment, duped him. Based on his complaint, the Hyderabad Cyber Crime unit registered a case and started an investigation.
In the complaint, the officer stated that he received a call from an unknown person identifying himself as an employee of a mobile app company that facilitates credit card payments. The caller informed that his monthly credit call bill payment had failed and that he would assist him in completing the payment. The caller asked the officer to log into the app and then sent him an SMS, using which the caller gained access to the officer’s mobile phone.
However, the officer was in an area with poor network coverage. Later, he received several SMSes from the bank informing him of low account balance. He immediately called up the bank’s customer care centre and got the card blocked. It was later found that the caller, who had already gained access to the officer’s mobile phone, obtained OTPs to transfer the amount from his account to another account based in New Delhi. In this way, the caller transferred over Rs 1.17 lakh in three transactions.