BENGALURU: In a huge cyber fraud, many vulnerable people from and outside the City have been cheated by cyber criminals, who trapped them to sell their kidneys for crores of rupees to Bangalore Baptist Hospital (BBH) - a reputed super speciality hospital in the City - after they created a fake website of the hospital and used the name of a surgeon there to make the fraud look genuine.
Some desperate people, for want of money paid the fraudsters initial amounts ranging from `25,000 to `2 lakh after the criminals told them that money was required by the hospital for registration. The doctor - Dr Antony Robert Charles - whose name was wrongly used for the fraud and BBH have lodged complaints at the Yeshwanthpur cyber-crime police station.
Director, BBH, Dr Naveen Thomas told The New Indian Express that the fraud came to light on June 11 this year, when one of the victims - Kumar - posted a review on Google stating that BBH is looking for kidney donors and had mentioned to contact Dr Antony Robert Charles, who is a paediatric surgeon at BBH on a WhatsApp number - 7873223513. “Immediately the response was posted in Google stating that BBH is not responsible for kidney sale,” said Dr Thomas.
On July 13, another victim, Pushpa, called the BBH guest relations on the WhatsApp number 9480689779 stating that someone claiming to be Dr Antony Robert Charles had contacted her and said that he would pay her Rs 6 crore for a kidney. “She told us that she had paid around Rs 2 lakh for registration to this person through PhonePe app. She was however, reluctant to share the transaction details for verification,” said the BBH Director.
On July 28, a third victim, Lokesh. shared his WhatsApp chat with the criminal claiming to be Dr Charles -- from his mobile number 97******45 to the BBH guest relations. “Lokesh also told us that he had paid around Rs 25,000 for registration to sell his kidney to BBH. On July 27, a fourth victim, Prema, came to the hospital to verify the details regarding the kidney transplantation and about Dr Charles. She also mentioned that she had paid approximately Rs 85,000 for registration as instructed by the fraudster. He also sent a donor card image on WhatsApp to her,” narrated Dr Thomas.
Alarmed at the fraud and the illegal use of its name, the BBH filed an FIR (0335/2021) on July 21 at the Cyber Economic and Narcotics (CEN) Crime Police Station, DCP North Division, Bengaluru City. “Few more people have complained that they were cheated by some unknown persons using the hospital’s name. Hospital authorities further filed additional documents on July 29 to the same police station,” said Dr Thomas.
He added that the Hospital continues to get a lot of calls from people who want like to sell their kidneys. “The Hospital is not in any way connected to the fraud. Sale of organs is strictly prohibited under law. We request the public to not fall for such frauds. They should file a complaint to the police directly. They can also call our chief security officer R Mallesha on 9448496601 for clarification,” said Dr Thomas.
(The names of victims have been changed to protect identity)