Pradeep Chowdhury, a resident of Arjun Nagar in Safdarjung Enclave, was the victim of a distressing digital fraud after he sought a refund of Rs 113 from a cab service provider. According to a police source, Chowdhury took a cab to Gurgaon for work, and upon completion of the ride, the fare showed Rs 318. Chowdhury asked the cab driver about the extra Rs 113, and the driver suggested that he contact the cab company’s customer care for a refund. Chowdhury trusted this advice and searched online for the customer service number.
He quickly placed the call after locating a number that he thought belonged to the taxi firm. A person pretending to be a customer service agent was on the line. In his explanation, Dr. Chowdhury asked for a reimbursement for the amount that had been overcharged.
The caller identified themselves as Rakesh Mishra and claimed to be handling consumer issues. Mishra asked to access Chowdhury’s e-wallet and assisted him in downloading a remote sensing software. Then, referring to it as a verification stage, he gave Chowdhury instructions to enter the reimbursement amount and the first six digits of his phone number.
Chowdhury obeyed the directions and gave the information asked, believing that the process of claimed verification would be trustworthy. He revealed his OTP as well. Sadly, this resulted in four illegal transactions and a Rs 4.9 lakh loss.
Law enforcement officers have filed a case under the IT Act’s Section 66 D and IPC Section 420, which deal with cheating. Investigators believe that while Dr. Chowdhury was looking for the real customer service number, he fell prey to a bogus number that scammers had posted online.
The situation is being intensively investigated by police, who have formed specialized squads to identify the culprits of this upsetting online fraud.
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