A senior citizen allegedly lost around Rs 50,000 after receiving a call from a man who introduced himself as a bank official and sent him a link to “update his KYC (know your customer) details”.
Police, acting on a complaint lodged by Sudarshan Paul, who is in his late sixties, managed to freeze the bank account where the money was transferred and handed him a cheque for the lost amount on Thursday.
"Sudarshan Paul had received a call from a man who identified himself as a bank official," a senior officer in the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said.
The caller could convince Paul that he was the manager of the branch where Paul has a savings account.
“He then told Paul that in order to update his KYC, he needed to click a link to be sent to him and fill in details such as his account number, debit card number and the CVV (a secret code mentioned on the back of the debit card)," said the officer.
Once Paul keyed in the details, the man disconnected the call.
Paul later realised that more than Rs 49,000 had been siphoned off from his account.
“By clicking the link the caller had sent him, Paul allowed remote access to his device,” said the officer.