An elderly retired woman officer from Juhu was allegedly duped of around ₹7.5 lakh by an unidentified cyber fraudster on the pretext of helping her get a refund for a cancelled flight ticket. The Juhu Police have registered an FIR under sections of cheating and the Information Technology Act against the unknown accused.
The 77-year-old complainant, who lives in Juhu with her husband, had booked two airline tickets to Kerala via a private website in April. However, she later cancelled the tickets and expected a refund to be credited to her bank account. When the refund did not arrive for several days, she tried to contact the airline’s customer care service.
In her search for assistance, she looked up the customer care number on Google and called the number she found. The person on the other end claimed to be from the airline’s support team and convinced her to share her bank account details under the pretext of processing the refund.
Trusting the caller, the woman provided all her bank information. Shortly after sharing the details, she began receiving messages indicating that multiple transactions had been made from her account. Alarmed, she immediately rushed to her bank and informed the officials about the fraud. She also requested them to freeze all further transactions from her account.
Upon verifying her bank passbook, it was revealed that online transactions amounting to ₹7.5 lakh had been carried out fraudulently.
Realising she had been duped, the woman lodged a complaint with both the Cyber Crime Helpline and Juhu Police. Following a preliminary inquiry, the police have registered a case against the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating, as well as provisions of the IT Act.
Police are currently investigating the case and attempting to trace the fraudster based on technical clues.