Kolkata: A 74-year-old technical consultant-cum-valuer, residing at Phoolbagan, became a victim of cyber fraud after he trusted the internet to source the contact details of a "bank manager" and shared with the accused all his bank details. The victim ended up losing Rs 34.8 lakh. Though the FIR was lodged a few days ago at Phoolbagan police station, cops have been able to stop barely Rs 20,000 from reaching the fraudsters.
The accused reportedly carried out no less than 164 transactions on the accounts of the victim, Bikash Kanti Sarkar, in a span of barely eight hours on March 27. It was only recently that Sarkar realised the enormity of the loss after tallying his bank accounts. Sources said there is a possibility that his phone got cloned using his personal details.
Prima facie, the Eastern suburban police cyber cell, which is probing the case along with Phoolbagan police, shows that the money reached two main beneficiaries with ATM transactions, worth Rs 7.5 lakh, made at a Durgapur ATM.
"I lost my wife on Jan 13 and was very disturbed. It was my wife's last wish to distribute some money between my two sons. I wanted to add one of my sons as a beneficiary to my account. However, despite trying for four days online, I failed. I have been using internet banking for several years now since the Covid period, and this was the first time that I failed in a banking process. I am a customer of the Beliaghata branch of my bank where parking is a major headache. Hence, I tried to avoid a visit and searched online. I got a phone number of the manager of a bank and ended up calling him," said Sarkar.
Sarkar added that the fraudster heard him out and said he would get back. "After some time, the accused made a WhatsApp call where he began asking me details about my account and my Aadhaar details. After some time, I began receiving OTPs that made me suspicious. I even asked him why OTPs were being generated, but he asked me to ignore them. After I hung up, I realised that money was getting deducted even before I could react," said Sarkar.