Online conman siphons `1.5L from PSU staffer

An online conman impersonating a customer care employee siphoned off `1.5 lakh from the account of a public sector undertaking employee by luring the latter into revealing his account details.

Complainant Singh informed police that he received a message on his mobile on March 11 stating: “Paytm – Dear Customer, Your Paytm Know Your Customer (KYC) has expired. Please contact customer care No. 8305475059 immediately or your Paytm account will be blocked within 24 hours.”

The message included a phone number in the name of Paytm office.

Singh called the given number and a person calling himself Rahul answered as Paytm representative.

“He informed me that my eKYC of Paytm has to be updated and he will guide me through the process. He asked me to open the play store and install an application “Quick Support” on my mobile,” he said.

“I did not know the features of the application and fell prey to his machinations. When I opened the app, a 10-digit code number appeared. As per his instructions, I shared that number with him. After that he asked me to transfer `2 from my Paytm Account,” said the complainant.

Later, Singh was asked to give his credit card details.

After that he received an OTP message, which he revealed to the fraudster. Subsequently, he received three messages debiting amounts of `49,999 each from his SBI credit card, amounting to `1,49,997.

After realising that he was cheated, the complainant blocked his credit card and approached the Hyderabad cyber crime police.

A cheating case under relevant sections of IT has been lodged.