With bank’s help, police froze the beneficiary’s account before the amount could be deposited
Sweta Dalal offers sweets to API Meena Bakal at the North Mumbai Cyber Cell unit
The North Mumbai Cyber Cell unit helped a 30-year-old woman get back nearly Rs 2 lakh that she lost to a cybercriminal within 36 hours of the fraudulent transactions. The woman had purchased clothes from an e-commerce website and while returning the products, she received a phishing call from an unknown number.
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Sweta Dalal, 30, a resident of Kandivli, works as an administrator in a private firm. She wanted to return a top she had bought and found the customer care contact on the e-commerce website. On May 17, the person who received her call on the toll-free number transferred her call to someone named Rahul, who said he would help with the return process.
“Rahul asked me if I am using Google Pay or PhonePe. I found this query suspicious so I told him I don’t use either. Then he asked me the last four digits of my bank account number and assured me that I don’t have to share any OTP,” Dalal said. “After I shared the last four digits, I received three messages of deductions worth Rs 24,999 from my account. I immediately called on the number but the caller did not pick up,” Dalal added.
She lost a total off Rs 1.99 lakh in several transactions till the next day. “I still couldn’t reach the customer care number so I approached the bank to fill a dispute form. They asked me to approach the police.”
“I first went to Kandivli police who guided me to register a complaint with the cyber cell unit of north Mumbai,” said Dalal Assistant Police Inspector Meena Bakal, Police Sub Inspector Sandip Shevale, Constable Hitesh Suryavanshi and other staff worked on Dalal’s case. With the bank’s help, the cyber police found that the amount was not deposited to the receiver’s account. So the cyber cell froze the receiver’s account.
“They immediately froze the beneficiary’s account and the amount came back to my account. I thanked the officers and staff by giving them sweets,” Dalal added. “This is our duty but when someone comes and appreciates our work and says thank you in such ways, we feel more proud,” said an officer from the Cyber Cell unit.
May 17
Day Sweta Dalal called the customer care number and started losing the money
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