Credit card ‘help call’ traps woman, 3.9L siphoned off
Times of India | 19 February 2026
Kolkata: A New Town resident (35) lost Rs 3.9 lakh in a cyber fraud after a caller, posing as a private bank executive, persuaded her to redeem alleged credit card reward points through a fraudulent website.
The DC Block resident, who lodged a complaint on Monday, said on Sept 8, 2025, she received a call from a man, who identified himself as a bank employee, and offered to help her redeem reward points on her credit card. He reportedly directed her to access a website and "helped" her through the process, during which Rs 3,87,834 was debited in two transactions. The accused reportedly told the woman the amount would be credited to her account soon. But the following day, she found the amount was billed to her credit card account.
The woman contacted the bank's customer care number the next day and blocked her card. "The bank provided a temporary credit card and initiated a probe, issuing a service request number. In Jan, the amount was again billed in the credit card statement," she wrote in her complaint. When she again raised an objection, the bank on Jan 14 allegedly closed the query, with the remark, "fraud with your liability".
After receiving transaction IDs from the bank, she lodged a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting portal that was forwarded to the New Town Police Station.
"We are examining the call details, the fraudulent website link, and the transaction trail linked to the beneficiary account," an officer said.