Two from Hyderabad, including government employee, lose ₹50 lakh in separate scams

A 55-year-old government employee from Hyderabad lost ₹48 lakh in an impersonation fraud. The victim received a call from a fraudster posing as a CBI officer in Delhi, who accused him of being involved in a money laundering case. The fraudster said that transactions worth ₹20 crore to ₹30 crore were carried out through the victim’s Bank of Baroda account in Delhi and that there was a non-bailable arrest warrant against him.

She was then connected to another woman who warned her of jail time of 3-7 years and loss of job among other things. Following a seven-hour-long conversation, the victim was asked to transfer ₹48 lakh via RTGS. She was also asked to not discuss the matter with anyone, and report to the fraudsters through WhatsApp video call every hour until the investigation was complete.

OTP scam

Meanwhile, a cancelled Zepto order led a 38-year-old homemaker from Hyderabad into a ₹1.45 lakh OTP scam. The victim received a WhatsApp message from a fraudster posing as a Zepto customer care executive after she had placed and cancelled an order on the Zepto mobile app. Later, the victim received a call from the fraudster, who instructed her to check whether money had been debited from her account and sent her a link for verification.

The scammer provided some instructions and asked the victim to share her screen. The victim opened the APK link shared by scammer, uploaded her data and filled in the other requested information including her credit card details. She even called up her bank’s customer care and got her card blocked explaining the issue.

Despite her prompt action and even after not sharing the OTP, the fraudsters hacked her phone during the video call and siphoned off ₹1.45 lakh from her account.

The cases are under investigation at the Hyderabad cyber crime police station.

Published - November 07, 2024 07:01 pm IST