A mechanical engineer of a petroleum company in Uran fell prey to cybercrime and lost ₹7.64 lakh from his bank account.
In the incident that was reported to Uran police on Saturday, the 60-year-old complainant alleged that the conman called him up by posing as an official from the electricity board, asking to pay electricity bill in order to avoid power disconnection. The accused then sent a link, which the complainant had clicked and had attempted to make payment that did not happen. Eventually, he lost ₹7.64 lakh from his account.
The complainant had kept his phone on the office desk and was away when he had missed a call. After returning to his desk, he called back the number.
“The caller told him that his electricity bill payment was not done and he needs to pay soon to avoid disconnection of the electricity. The caller sent a link and asked to click to fill in the details. The caller also asked to download an application from Play Store and then asked to try making the payment using the link he shared earlier,” a police officer from Uran police station said.
The complainant first tried to make a payment of ₹10 through the link, which failed. He then left his phone on the desk again and went back to work. After around two hours when he was back at his desk, he found a series of messages from his bank about deduction of money from his account amounting to ₹7.64 lakh.
“The application that the conman had asked to install was one which gave him remote access and when the complainant tried making the payment using the link, the accused could access the details used to make the payment,” a police officer from cyber cell, said.
“The case is being investigated along with the cyber cell unit. We would like to appeal to the public never to download any such app on the insistence of any caller. And payments of electricity and other similar services should be made through the official websites,” Sunil Patil, senior police inspector from Uran police station, said.