Woman duped of ₹12L on pretext of upgrading mobile services

Bank constantly calling her to repay ‘loan taken’, she alleges

July 24, 2020 12:23 am | Updated 12:23 am IST - NEW DELHI

A woman alleged that a loan of ₹12 lakh was sanctioned illegally in her name by a man who called her on the pretext of upgrading her SIM card from 3G to 4G during the lockdown, the police said on Thursday.

Neha Khatri from Moti Nagar, an IT employee, filed a complaint at Moti Nagar police station about the fraud. The victim said that on May 10, she received a phone call from a person who introduced himself as the customer care executive of a mobile network company.

‘Withdrew all money’

During the call, the man allegedly offered her to upgrade her services from 3G to 4G. She agreed to the upgrade as she was facing network problem and as per instructions, she texted “Y” from her mobile phone. She was told that the upgrade would happen within 24 hours. “When the man ended the call with me, my network was gone. The situation remained the same till the next day following which I tried calling the customer care to block my mobile number. However, customer care denied blocking number, saying my identity does not match. Due to the lockdown, I could not visit the shops as they were shut. I got worried and rushed to an ATM to withdraw whatever amount was in my bank account at that time,” Ms. Khatri said.

Next day, she went to her bank at Kirti Nagar branch where the deputy branch manager said there is ₹2.5 lakh in her account. She was shocked at this and before the bank could freeze her account, “the money got transferred to another account in front of me”, she added.

After some time, the deputy branch manager told her that the unauthorised amount is a withdrawal of an Insta Personal loan (pre-approved) sanctioned in a bank account. The bank had provided unauthorised personal loan of ₹11,90,561 without her consent, she said, adding that the amount was transferred to various bank accounts.

The victim said it has been two months and the bank is yet to give her any information as to how the loan was sanctioned.

“Where did the money go? What are the steps taken by the bank? The bank is calling me daily to pay the loan, which I have not taken,” she said.

A senior officer said a first information report under the Indian Penal Code Section 420 (fraud) has been registered and the case is under investigation.

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