In bid to help Kol friend, sr citizens lose ₹2.6L to frauds
Times of India | 30 September 2024
Kolkata: In a recent case of email phishing, senior citizens in London and Mumbai lost a total of Rs 2.6 lakh to cyber criminals who created a fake e-mail id in the name of their elderly friend from Kolkata and sent bulk fraudulent messages seeking monetary assistance.
The email account of 84-year-old Deepak Mukerjee, a former managing director and banker, was hacked by the cyber crooks.
Later, they created a fake e-mail id by distorting his original account name. Mukerjee, a south Kolkata resident, alleged that the cyber fraudsters had added an extra letter to his surname to create the fake e-mail address. The change in spelling, being a minor one, failed to catch the attention of their victims.
A Mumbai-basedlawyer, Mukerjee’s well-wisher, was the first person to fall in the trap. The lawyer had transferred a total of Rs 1,80,902 between Aug 30 to Sept 3 through seven different transactions to the account number shared by the fraudsters on emails. Another 79-year-old friend of Mukerjee, based in London, made a similar mistake and lost Rs 80,000.
“ They impersonated me in the emails and wrote that me and my wife were in financial distress during our visit to the UK. They sought monetary help ,” added Mukerjee. The fraudsters had also exchanged messages asking about the well-being of the victims and wished them good health. Mukerjee claimed that the messages were drafted in a way he writes to his friends. “Finding these junk e-mails some of my friends across India and abroad called me up and thus, I came to know about the fraud,” he added.
Initially, Mukerjee had approached the Rabindra Sarobar police station. He alleged that the duty officer regretted his inability to lodge a complaint under relevant sections as Mukerjee hadn’t lost any money. Thus, he wrote to the Cyber Cell section of South East Division on Sept 13.
The probe is underway. Sources said the swindled amount was sent to saving accounts in Rajasthan, Haryana and Gurgaon.