Mumbai, March 19: Cyber Fraudsters are finding new ways to dupe gullible people of their hard earned money. In one such case, a Borivali-based garments dealer was duped of Rs 1.5 lakh while he was trying to book railway tickets for his family members. Cyber criminals did the act using a mix of malicious apps and a link.

TOI reported that the complainant who wanted to book railway tickets for his family members to travel from Mumbai to Amritsar, had downloaded an app for purchasing confirmed railway tickets.

The man had booked railway tickets on the app for his parents, his sister and his wife for nearly Rs 20,000. But as he did not receive a notification about seat numbers allotted to his family, he explored the app to find out the seat layout and was directed to a page with the customer care numbers. Online Fraud in Mumbai: Businessman Ends Up With Only Rs 1000 in Bank Account After Fraudsters Dupe Him of Rs 28 Lakh During 30-Minute SIM Outage.

On March 6 he dialled the number and was connected to "senior executives" who took down his transaction and ticket details and asked him to download two apps called 'customer support' and 'sms forward'. Online Fraud in Bengaluru: Man Loses Rs 1 Lakh While Making Rs 5 Top-Up Recharge to Change DTH Plan.

The complainant did as instructed," said a police officer. He keyed in his mobile number into the 'customer support' app. He also scanned his debit card on the app and clicked on the link that popped up. The link took him to the webpage of a bank where he held a savings account. He entered his banking user ID and password on the webpage and then generated an ATM pin, as directed by the accused. No sooner had he done so, Rs 40,000 was debited from his account.

Cops said that the accused assured him that he would get a refund as well as receive a ticket confirmation. He was instructed to keep checking his email for getting the ticket confirmation. But he never received any email about the same.

The victim was convinced by the accused to make payments in order to get back the Rs 40,000 that had been debited from his account previously. He fell for the con and kept paying in instalments ending up losing Rs 1.15 lakh totally. A complaint has been lodged and further investigation is underway.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 19, 2023 09:36 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).