A 50-year-old man from Satellite lost Rs 90,000 to cyber fraudsters after dialing a fake customer care number of a courier service he found on Google.
The incident on September 10, Raju Prajapati, a resident of Vrindavan flat in Karnavati Pagarkha Bazar near Mansi Circle, said, “I had bought a FASTag for my car through an online service. I received a message from Blue Dart courier service got a call saying that the parcel would be delivered on September 9. When it got delayed, I searched the customer care number on Google and found one,” Prajapati further said that when he dialed the number, a man answered and instructed him to download an application form, fill it and pay Rs 5. Trusting the instructions, Prajapati followed him and an hour later a delivery boy arrived at his house and handed over the courier.
About 24 hours later, Prajapati started getting information about the money being deducted from his bank account. He realized that he had incurred a loss of Rs.90,000 in three different transactions.
Taking immediate action, Prajapati contacted his bank and froze his account. After about 40 days, he unblocked the account and contacted the cyber crime helpline. Subsequently, nine months later, the Satellite Police registered a case of cheating and breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as the Information Technology Act and initiated an investigation into the matter.