A 43-year-old man from New Barrackpore, who had more than Rs 11 lakh siphoned off from his account in a banking fraud in August, got his money back on Saturday.
Uttam Sarkar, who drives the official vehicle of an officer from the Bidhannagar commissionerate, received a call on his cellphone from a number where the caller impersonating as the manager of his bank informed Sarkar that his credit card and loan applications had been approved, police said.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said the caller told Sarkar that he (the caller) needed his “approval to send the credit card to his home address and the loan amount to his savings bank account”.
Sarkar is said to have clicked on a link that he had been sent.
“After clicking on the link, the caller told him to fill in his bank account number, his debit card details as well as CVV number. Sarkar
did so thinking that this was the procedure to secure the loan and get the credit card home delivered to him,” said the officer.
Several days later, when Sarkar went to update his passbook he realised that a sum of Rs 11.35 had been siphoned off from his bank account.
He lodged a complaint with Salt Lake cyber crime police station.
The police said they found that the link Sarkar had been sent led to him installing a screen sharing and control app that helped the caller gain access to his cellphone.
The cops tracked down the money trail and zeroed in on several bank accounts that the money had been routed to.
All the accounts were then frozen and Sarkar got his money back, the police said.