A 71-year-old woman died of heart attack on Sunday two days after she lost ₹90,000 to an imposter posing as a bank official.
R. Jayalakshmi was living with her husband on 11th Main Road, Anna Nagar West. According to her relatives, she received a call on her mobile phone on Friday afternoon. The caller, identifying himself as an officer from SBI, said he had called her give a new Aadhaar card. Jayalakshmi shared all details about her account in Indian Bank. She never suspected the caller to be a fraudster, said a relative.
She had also shared the one-time passwords and the imposter withdrew her money through four fraudulent transactions.
After ₹90,000 was withdrawn from her account, the staff of the bank in Thirumangalam, where she had an account, called to check whether they were genuine transactions. Only then did she realise that she was cheated.
Second attempt
Her nephew, R. Mahalingam accompanied her to the Thirumangalam police station and lodged a complaint. Mr. Mahalingam said, “She was upset over the loss of her money. In fact, the fraudster called her the next day and tried to cheat her again.”
When one of her relatives questioned him, the caller claimed that he wanted to return the money and he required the one-time password one last time. “He was trying to swindle even the remaining amount in her account,” Mr. Mahalingam said.
Aggrieved over the loss of money, she developed chest pain on Saturday and was admitted to a private hospital, where she died on Sunday.
According to the police, the call originated from Uttarakhand, and the swindled amount was diverted to a merchant.
The case is under investigation.
