A 40-year-old housewife from Darave village in Seawood lost ₹6.98 lakh after sharing her OTP (one-time password) 28 times with a cyberfraud.
The incident happened between May 17 and 23 when she received a call from a fraudster claiming to be manager of the State Bank of India.
“The fraudster told the lady that he was from SBI and that her ATM card was blocked. He asked her to share her ATM card details and pin number to unblock the card. He called her again asking to share the OTP number that she received. He also told her to delete any other message from the bank,” Police Inspector (Crime) Bhaguji Auti said.
Called on daily basis
According to the police, the accused’s first transaction was of ₹4,000 to an Oxigen wallet in Gurgaon. After realising that the woman was not suspicious, the caller made many calls on a daily basis till May 23.
“The lowest amount of transaction was of ₹4,000 and the highest ₹49,999 to a PhonePe wallet in Mumbai. In all, he made 28 transactions,” Mr. Auti said.
Since the accused asked the woman to delete the messages from the bank, she kept deleting updates on the amount deduction.
She finally learnt about the fraud on Wednesday when she went to update her passbook.
“She found that nobody from the bank had called her. She lodged a complaint with us when she learnt of the cheating,” Mr. Auti said. The woman’s husband works in Kuwait, while she stays with her two sons in Darave. Her elder son has just finished Class XII and the ₹10 lakh in her account was an education loan meant for his higher studies.
‘Warn customers’
“The family is shattered. Her husband is in touch with the investigating team. The woman says she doesn’t have knowledge of online banking,” Mr. Auti said.
“We have asked the SBI to send messages and alert every customer visiting the bank that no details about ATM card or OTP should be shared with anyone,” he added.
