A Ballygunge resident lost over Rs 75,000 after he downloaded an app on the advice of a caller who claimed to be a bank official and was calling to resolve a problem with his credit card.
The victim received a call on the evening of August 28. The caller informed him that he would have to pay a monthly additional charge if the “International Roaming facility” of his credit card was not deactivated.
He was asked to download an app through which the service could be deactivated. After the app was downloaded money was deducted from his account through multiple transactions he apparently did not make.
The complainant, in his 40s who did not wish to be named, said the man who had called him had introduced himself as an official of a bank whose credit card he was using.
“The man said as there was an International Roaming facility on my credit card, I would have to bear an additional charge of Rs 1,500 every month unless I decided to deactivate the service. I asked him to deactivate the service right away. For that he asked me to download an app on my phone,” the resident of Ballygunge told The Telegraph on Sunday.
He said that according to the instructions of the person over the phone, he downloaded an app on his phone through a link that was sent to him through WhatsApp.
“The number from where the link was sent to me had the bank’s logo as its profile picture. So I did not suspect its credibility even once,” he said.
Once the app was downloaded, the complainant was asked to share the details of his credit cards, including the CVV number.
The complainant said he shared the details of two of his credit cards without an inkling that he was sharing confidential information with fraudsters.
“Minutes after I shared the details, a money transfer was initiated from my account and I received alerts on my phone,” he said.
More than Rs 75,000 was deducted from two of his bank accounts whose credit card numbers he had shared, police said.
“When I told the person over the phone that I was receiving messages informing about money deduction, he had assured me that all the money would be refunded,” he said.
It was only after five transactions that the complainant realised that he had been duped.
He tried to call back the number but the phone was unreachable.
He reported the matter first to the customer care numbers of the banks and then to the police.
A senior police officer said it was apparent that the fraudsters had convinced the complainant to download a screen-sharing app on his phone and share its passcode with the fraudsters which gave the fraudsters remote access to his phone.
“Once the fraudsters had remote access to the victim’s phone, they could make online transactions without the knowledge or consent of the bank account holder,” said the officer.
The victim lodged a complaint with Ballygunge police station on Saturday.
It has been found that out of the five fraudulent transactions, in four, the money was transacted to the portal of an e-commerce giant.