Senior citizens, pensioners on cyber criminals’ radar
Over 24 Such Cases Being Reported Every Month In Bhopal
Bhopal:13.09.2021
In the last few months, there has been a steady rise in cyber-fraud cases involving senior citizens and retired government officials. Every month around two dozen such cases are being reported in the city in which the elderly are targeted by online fraudsters, said cops.
The fraudsters posing as telecom company executives or bank officials send links to the victims and ask them to download remote access apps on their smartphone on the pretext of paying a meagre amount of Rs 10 for completing the SIM verification or KYC update and hack their phones to access their bank accounts.
The Bhopal cyber-crime branch has recently registered a number of such cases in which elderly people were duped by online fraudsters. Police have been issuing advisories regularly to spread awareness among senior citizens and pension account holders.
In on such case, victim Arif-Ur-Rehman Khan, 78, a resident of Aditya Avenue Colony on Airport Road, received an SMS on his mobile phone that his SIM card KYC had expired. Few minutes later, he received a call on his mobile phone on which the caller introduced himself as an executive with BSNL and took details apparently to update his KYC online. The accused told him to give the OTP received on his mobile number.
The senior citizen fell in the trap and gave the OTP received on his mobile number to the fraudster. The accused siphoned Rs 74000 from his bank account in three transactions.
In another case reported around a week ago, complainant Jai Kishan Sharma, 70, a resident Katara Hills, told police that an unidentified fraudster called on his wife’s mobile phone on September 1, and introduced himself as an executive of a telecom company. The accused lured the victim in his net stating that the KYC of her SIM card needs to be updated and sent a link to download an application. He took the code and hacked her mobile phone. However, due to a glitch he couldn’t siphon money through the app so he asked her OTPs making various excuses and siphoned Rs 1.9 lakh from her bank account.
ASP (Cyber-crime branch) Ankit Jaiswal said, the victims should report the cyber-crimes immediately to police, especially in cases of financial frauds. The money siphoned by the accused from the victims’ accounts remains in their bank accounts for some time before they withdraw it. If the cases are reported to police immediately, cops would contact the banks concerned to freeze the bank accounts of the fraudsters used to siphon money.
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