A gang, believed to be operating from northern States, robbed an ailing journalist of Rs. 1.2 lakh online by tricking the latter to part with his State Bank of India’s debit card details over phone. Based on the complaint lodged by the friends of K. Nagaraju, the journalist, on Saturday, the Central Crime Station (CCS) sleuths began probe by collecting details of transactions made using the card. A few weeks ago, Mr. Nagaraju, who is fighting cancer, submitted a written application to the bank’s branch at Sarapaka in Khammam district to change his mobile phone number for alerts about transactions.
On February 26, a person claiming to be a bank employee rang up Mr. Nagaraju and sought details of his debit card. “He grew suspicious when the caller asked him about his bank balance and got it blocked,” the journalist’s friends told this correspondent.
Eventually, he got the card reactivated and even changed the PIN. Five days ago, he withdrew money from an ATM. From the next day onwards, the offenders kept making transactions amounting to Rs. 1.2 lakh from the scribe’s account for bulk recharging of mobile phones.
He learnt about the fraud when he tried to withdraw money, but found only a few hundred rupees in his account. Police sources said that an inter-State gang fraudulently obtaining money from credit and debit cards and using the same to recharge pre-paid mobile phone SIM cards could be behind it.
