₹53 lakh of a senior citizen was saved from an online fraudster who attempted to swindle it by sending a phishing message thanks to quick action of Cyber Crime Cell of Anna Nagar and bank authorities.
Anbarasan, 66, is a retired staff of ONGC and resident of Villivakkam. He has an account with State Bank of India, Villvakkam for the last 37 years. He also parked all money received towards pensionary benefits in fixed deposits.
A stranger sent a short message to his mobile phone number for updating his PAN number. He entered his PAN number and Aadhar number into a link shared by the stranger. Anbarasan also shared one time-password to the stranger a couple of times. Initially he received a message on withdrawal of ₹25,000 and the caller told him that the amount would be given back in two days. However, the fraudster went on withdrawing money. Anbarasan checked his account through internet banking and found that altogether ₹53,25,000 was shown withdrawn unauthorisedly from his account by the fraudster and the money was parked in special term deposit account. He immediately blocked his account and lodged a police complaint besides sending request to the bank authorities to stop the transaction.
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Rs. 53 lakh was retrieved and credited back into Anbarasan's account at the intervention of police personnel of Cyber Crime Cell of Anna Nagar and the bank authorities. He was assured by officials that the remaining amount would be retrieved and credited into his account soon.