Mumbai Crime: Fraudster dupes TV professional of Rs 70,000

The complainant called on a number that appeared in a Google search result. Representation pic

A film professional working for a television channel was duped by a cyber fraudster posing as an employee of a travel company to the tune of Rs 70,000. The 39-year-old complainant, a resident of Borivli, had booked two rooms at the Lalit Hotel in Lonavala through a well-known online booking platform and paid Rs 2,209 via credit card for the same.

The complaint, who did not wish to be identified, said, "A couple of days after the booking, I discovered that the hotel did not receive the payment. I searched the travel company's customer care number on Google and called 18004125413.The call got disconnected after a couple of rings. A few seconds later, I received a call from a person saying he is a representative of the company. He asked me to download the AnyDesk Remote Desktop control app and asked me to deposit Rs 10, which he said would be refunded." A few minutes after the complainant downloaded the app, he received an SMS alert about Rs 50,000 deducted from his credit card. "When I asked the representative about it, he said it was deducted by mistake and that it would be reversed. But a few minutes later, another Rs 20,000 was deducted," the complainant said.

"Then I got a call from the bank informing me of another transaction and asking me to press 6 if I want to disallow the transaction and 1 if I want to go ahead with it. I immediately hit 6 and saved Rs 21,000 from being deducted," he added.

"I approached Borivli police and registered a complaint. I also approached the cyber cell. When the officers checked the customer care number, it showed as belonging to Jammu Transport Company," the complainant said.

The complainant added, "We must check thoroughly before dialling numbers found on Google search. It would be better to call on numbers given in official applications of
companies."