Retd BMC engineer loses Rs 2.8 lakh to cyber fraud

A retired Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) employee was duped by an unidentified cyber fraudster to the tune of Rs 2.8 lakh on the pretext of updating the PAN card number in his account details.

According to the police, the incident occurred on March 28, when the 69-yearold retired BMC engineer, received a message on his cell phone asking him to update PAN details or be blocked from his SBI YONO account. The message also provided a link to update details. Hours later, the complainant accessed the link and was redirected to a webpage, which asked him to enter his PAN card number. He subsequently received a one time password (OTP) which he entered on the webpage, after which he ended up losing over Rs 2.8 from his account.

The Kandivali resident immediately contacted the bank's customer care, only to realise that he had been duped. He subsequently approached the Kandivali police station along with a bank statement and lodged a complaint, acting on which a case was registered and the unidentified accused was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating and impersonation.

On Tuesday, the city police chief Sanjay Pandey expressed the need for a dedicated law to tackle the rising cyber crimes and said the existing law is not sufficient for routing out the menace. Pandey stressed on the need for data protection and security which are common in foreign countries.

“Senior citizens and those new to technology fall victim to cyber criminals more easily and awareness is necessary to tackle this problem,” Pandey said, adding that dedicating all his officers to deal with cyber crimes would still not be sufficient.