HYDERABAD: A retired assistant bank manager in State Bank of India has lost Rs 15 lakh to cyber fraudsters in a span of three months. The amount was transferred to a Paytm e-wallet in 107 transactions, said the police.
Sushanth Kumar, a resident of Narayanguda retired from the SBI as an assistant manager. On Wednesday, Kumar realised that about Rs 15 lakh from his bank account was missing and illegally transferred to an e-wallet without his knowledge. He had deposited about Rs 20 lakh in the bank account after his retirement. When Kumar enquired with the bank, he found that about 107 transactions have been made for the last six months. He immediately lodged a complaint with city cybercrime police.
Prima facie, it is understood that the fraudster could be a close associate of the victim, who might have had an access to the victim’s bank details and phone number. Cybercrime inspector VP Tiwari said, “Sushanth had about Rs 18 lakh in his bank account, which is now only about Rs 3 lakh. It is found that the transactions were made from February 18 to May 27. In a span of just three months, as many as 107 transactions were made on his bank account.
He said that the fraudster has been transferring money from the victim’s account to a Paytm e-wallet all these while.
“The victim should have received the OTP (one-time password) on his registered mobile number and alerts about the debit of money, but he stated that he never received an alert on,” said the inspector.
The inspector said that the probe is on to find out the user of the mobile number on which the Paytm e-wallet is registered and also the location status.
“It is suspected that a close associate of the victim or any person who has access to his bank details has indulged in the fraud,” he added.
yet another case
In another incident, Abdul Khaleel, a private employee from Santoshnagar deposited `1.35 lakh in accounts of strangers, who promised to give a surety-less loan of `10 lakh. Khaleel, on Thursday, lodged a complaint with the Cybercrime police that a stranger had called him about a month ago offering a loan of `10 lakh without providing any surety. Khaleel, who was in need of the money accepted to take the loan.