NOIDA: RETIRED COLONEL LOSES ₹3.5 LAKH TO ONLINE FRAUD

NOIDA: A 65-year-old retired colonel lost ₹3.5 lakh to an online fraud after his wife, while ordering food online, shared his bank account details with an unidentified caller on June 2. The victim, Colonel (retired) SPS Yadav, is a resident of Arun Vihar in Noida’s Sector 29.

In his complaint to the cyber police, Yadav said on June 2, his wife found a restaurant’s number on the internet and dialled the number to order food. “When the man on the phone line asked for mode of payment, my wife shared the debit card details. I got suspicious when the man started seeking more details and stopped my wife from giving any more information,” said Yadav, adding that no one came to deliver food that afternoon.

In the evening, Yadav said, the suspect, identified as Rahul, again called his wife and pretended to be a bank official. “He asked if she had made a transaction of ₹44,000 from her bank account. He said the transaction had come to him for clearance and that he was withholding it. The suspect asked for the details of another bank account, assuring that he would transfer ₹44,000 to that account.”

The woman believed the suspect and shared her husband’s bank details. The suspect fraudulently withdrew ₹3.5 lakh from Yadav’s account. Yadav then informed the bank and blocked his account and also lodged a complaint with the cyber cell, Noida, the same day. The cyber cell investigated the matter and directed the police to register an FIR in this case on September 26.

Munish Chauhan, station house inspector, Sector 20 police station, said that a case has been registered against the suspect under IPC Section 420 (cheating) and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act on Monday, and a probe is underway.

Asked about the delay in registering an FIR in the case, Baljeet Singh, inspector of cyber cell Noida, said, “We screen the complaints and investigate only cyber-related complaints. The screening and probe sometimes takes time... People should visit police stations and file complaints related to cyber fraud.”