Cyber con cites ‘family urgency’, dupes Panchkula resident of Rs 70K

An online fraudster has allegedly duped a woman, a Panchkula Sector 6 resident, of Rs 70,000 on the pretext that her father wanted to send her money.

The woman, who requested not to be named, said she received a call on her phone on Monday. “I was driving at the time. The caller then asked me whether I use any of the two online payment facilities — GooglePay or PayTM. Then I received a message, which later turned out to be fake, on my phone that Rs 20,000 had been credited into my account.”

“The fraudster again called and said he was supposed to send me Rs 25,000 and asked me to send some money to him so that he could return the balance amount. That was when I realised that it was a fraud call. I called my father to check,” she said.

She said before she could block her bank account, the fraudster managed to debit Rs 70,000 from her account in numerous transactions.

The woman contacted the cybercrime police and registered a complaint. She said she was later informed that Rs 44,000 debited from her account had been frozen.

The Panchkula police have registered a case against unidentified individuals under IPC Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty inducing delivery of property) at the cybercrime police station.