Chartered Accountant loses Rs.13 lakh due to fraud; Cyber detectives recover Rs.11 lakh

Quick action by the D B Marg police assisted a chartered accountant (CA) in recovering more than Rs.10.8 lakh stolen from his bank accounts and credit card by cyber thieves.

The accused initially enticed the 49-year-old CA with a job offer and invited him to Thane for an interview. After meeting him, one of the accused remained on the phone with the CA while the other appeared in person at the designated location. Under the guise of discussing something vital, the accused on the phone requested that the CA hand up the phone to the other accused. The second accused then vanished with the CA’s phone, and over Rs.12.8 lakh was deducted from the CA’s two bank accounts and a credit card.

A case has been filed under different sections of the IPC, including criminal breach of trust and cheating. Sections of the Information Technology Act were also referred to.

The complainant told us that he received a call in March from someone claiming to be from the National Academy of Banking and Finance. The caller requested that the complainant deposit Rs.100 online for bio-data screening for a job. Later, on April 13, the complainant received another call, and the caller instructed him to come to a bank in Thane for an interview on April 16, according to an officer.

According to police, the complainant proceeded to the Majiwada junction bridge in Thane, where he was approached by someone. During this time, another person posing as a senior official called and spoke with the complainant. He then requested that the CA hand over the phone to the person with him. “Once the complainant handed over his phone, the other man began talking on the phone and then left with the phone.” “The complainant then proceeded to a Thane police station and filed a mobile theft report,” cops added.

When the complainant went to an ATM on April 17, he saw that Rs.2.84 lakh had been deducted from his two bank accounts. This is when he filed a police report. Investigators spoke with a bank’s nodal officer and were able to recover Rs.85,000. According to authorities, the accused had previously drained money from another account. On April 27, the complainant returned to the police station, telling officers that Rs.9.97 lakh had also been transferred from his credit card. “We discovered that the funds had been moved to a payment gateway valet.”

The suspects were attempting to transmit the money to a Ghaziabad catering service. We contacted the payment gateway and cancelled the transaction. “This money has been restored to the complainant’s credit card,” an officer stated. “Our team is working on the case, and further investigation is underway,” senior inspector Pradip Khude said.

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