Mumbai: Woman dials ‘hospital’ number, loses Rs 1.92 lakh

The victim was looking for the contact details of Hinduja Hospital in Mahim

A 48-year-old Dadar woman, attempting to book a doctor's appointment at a nearby hospital, fell prey to cyber fraudsters, losing nearly Rs 1.92 lakh. The woman had Googled the number of the hospital to get an appointment and found a contact number. The personnel on the other line, claiming to be a hospital official, then defrauded her of her money by providing her a scam link to make the payment. The Dadar police have booked unknown persons in the case.

The complainant works in a travel company. According to her complaint, on April 4, around 10 am, she Googled the contact details of Hinduja Hospital. Unbeknownst to her, she was directed to a fake website, which listed the hospital landline as 02224451515. A man answered the call and following her enquiry for an appointment, transferred the line. Sometime later, a woman came on the call, and informed that her appointment was being processed and that she would get a call once confirmed.

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After a while, the victim received a call from an unknown number. The personnel claimed he was calling from the hospital, and shared a link (hospitalappointmen30.wixsite.com/mysite), where she was asked to fill basic details and pay Rs 50 for registration.

Despite repeated attempts, the woman was unable to make any payment. Tired with the process, she closed the link. However, the same evening she received back to back messages between 5.10 pm and 5.15 pm, stating that Rs 74,000 and Rs 1,18,000 had been deducted from two bank accounts.

The woman immediately filed a complaint with the Dadar police station. The police subsequently booked unknown persons under IPC sections 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating), and other relevant sections of the IT Act 2000. "The modus operandi of the fraudsters is common - they edit the mobile number on Google search and then delete it after defrauding a few persons," said an official from the Dadar police station.