A nurse lost her first salary after a man allegedly called her posing as a bank official who wanted to get her "KYC" updated and cleaned out her salary account leaving only Rs 8 behind.
Payel Nag, a resident of Prince Anwar Shah Road, said she lost around Rs 26,000 from her two bank accounts, including the salary account.
She had joined duty in the middle of November and was paid a proportionate salary for 10 days, which was deposited in her salary account.
According to Nag, her salary was stolen by a caller who convinced her to share an OTP that came on her phone saying it was needed to update her KYC for her newly-opened salary account.
“I opened a bank account on November 17. It is my salary account. I received a call from an unknown number on Thursday. The caller claimed to be calling from the bank where I had my salary account and confirmed my banking details. Then he said it was the last date for updating the KYC,” said Nag.
She got nervous and started sharing the details which the caller asked for fearing that her salary account would be blocked.
“He asked for the banking details of my father, who is the nominee of my account. I couldn’t share the details as I did not have it with me. Then he asked me about another bank account I had. I was so scared that I shared the details of that account, too,” she said.
After disconnecting the phone, Nag found that only Rs 8 was left in her salary account and Rs 60 in the other account.
She reported the matter to Lake police station on Thursday. Police said they have initiated a probe.
“We have been trying to make people understand that it is extremely important that they should not share any personal details or any OTP with strangers over the phone,” said a police officer.
Metro reported on Wednesday how an 83-year-old retired government official in Thakurpukur had panicked when he received a call from a stranger who claimed to be calling from “table number 3” of his bank.
The elderly man had lost around Rs 2.5 lakh. He was asked to get his KYC updated. Unable to do what he was being asked to, he handed over the phone to his 11-year-old grandson to follow the instructions, which possibly led the cheat gain remote access to his phone.