A 40-year-old woman from Vastral lost ₹1 lakh from her Union Bank of India account in a suspected cyber fraud after her husband’s mobile phone suddenly switched off for about 30 minutes while they were travelling on the metro.
The incident took place on August 30. Hinaben Patel, a resident of Rajdhani Tenement near Nirant Char Rasta, uses a Union Bank account linked to her husband Bhaveshbhai’s mobile number and PhonePe account.While the couple was travelling towards Thaltej, Bhaveshbhai’s phone suddenly switched off and automatically turned on after around half an hour.The fraud came to light the following morning when Bhaveshbhai tried to recharge his wife’s mobile phone through PhonePe, but the transaction failed.
A colleague checked the account and found that its daily transaction limit of ₹1 lakh had already been reached.On checking the PhonePe transaction history, the couple discovered that ₹1 lakh had been withdrawn from the account.
They immediately approached the Vastral branch of Union Bank, where they learned that the money had been transferred to a Punjab National Bank account. The couple then froze the debit facility on their account and lodged a complaint through the cybercrime helpline 1930.Ramol police have registered a case and launched an investigation.
Police and cyber experts are examining whether the fraud involved malware, a remote-access tool, SIM swapping or another method, as the couple said they had not clicked on any suspicious link or shared an OTP.