A man from Gaighata, North 24-Parganas, was arrested on Wednesday morning for allegedly posing as a bank official and duping people by calling them and claiming that their cards and accounts had been blocked.
The Bidhannagar commissionerate’s cyber wing arrested Milon Mondal based on a complaint lodged by a man who was duped out of more than Rs 80,000, a senior officer said.
The complainant had received a call where the caller identified himself as an official of a nationalised bank andtold him that his credit card had been blocked, the officer said.
“The victim was told that he needed to follow a few steps to unblock his card. After this, the complainant received a link to a website through an SMS,” the officer said.
The caller allegedly told him to click on the link and enter his credit card details. “The complainant keyed in his credit card details on the web link. The call got disconnected after this,” the officer said.
A few days later, the complainant received his monthly credit card statement from the bank and saw Rs 77,330 had been deducted from his credit card. Soon after, he received a text message alerting him that Rs 16,615 had been deducted from his mobile wallet.
“The man realised he had been duped and lodged a complaint with us,” the officer said.
The cops mounted electronic surveillance of the number from which the complainant had received the call and zeroed in on Mondal’s location.
A team went to Gaighata and arrested Mondal.
“We questioned Mondal and learnt he has cheated several people through such calls. Once the victim clicked on the link, Mondal would get remote access to their smartphone, laptop and other Internet-enabled devices. The victim would key in their credit or debit card details so he could siphon off money from their bank account. After this he would snap all communication,” the officer said.
The police seized a cellphone, multiple cheques and passbooks of various bank accounts that Mondal allegedly operated to channel the stolen money.