Just days after a woman in the city was swindled of ₹1.66 lakh by online fraudsters but the money recovered by the police in the nick of time, it emerged on Friday that none other than a High Court judge had fallen prey to an online fraud, though on a smaller scale.
The judge lost ₹4,320, when in a novel way, the fraudsters effected a series of online transactions for small amounts ranging from ₹65 to ₹850 from the bank account on March 10.
The amount was debited from the joint account of the judge and his wife using debit card details. Since the transactions were for small amounts, they were not noticed till the next day following which the card was immediately blocked, said police sources.
The Central Police have registered a case invoking relevant sections of the IT Act and IPC Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property). The police are now awaiting details of transactions from the bank to trace the money trail.
It is suspected that the fraudsters might have got hold of the debit card details during purchases made earlier using the card and used it to play online games or download online videos.
