A 69-year-old man from Borivali fell victim to an online fraud after an unidentified person posing as an official from Tata Power Electricity tricked him into updating his KYC through a fraudulent link. The incident resulted in a loss of nearly ₹9.75 lakh from the victim’s bank account. Borivali police have registered a case of cheating and relevant sections of the IT Act against the unknown accused and launched an investigation.
According to police, the complainant, resides in the Borivali area with his family. On February 24, while he was at home, he received a phone call from an unknown person who claimed to be calling from Tata Power Electricity. The caller informed him that his KYC details were pending and needed to be updated urgently.
The caller then sent a link to complement on WhatsApp and asked him to complete the KYC process. As the senior citizen was unfamiliar with the procedure, he followed the instructions given by the caller, opened the link and entered his personal details on the page.
As part of the process, he was asked to transfer ₹10 through UPI, which he did. Soon after the form was completed, the caller disconnected the call.
Later, when complainant narrated the incident to a friend, he was warned not to open such links as many fraudsters use similar tactics to cheat people. After this, complainant deleted the chat with the caller.
However, on March 3, he received several messages from his bank. Upon checking them, he was shocked to discover that ₹9,75,955 had been debited from his bank account.
Realizing that he had been cheated through the fake KYC link, complainant approached the Borivali Police Station and lodged a complaint. Based on his statement, police registered a case of cheating and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act against an unidentified person.
Officials from the Cyber Cell of Borivali Police Station are currently investigating the case and trying to trace the accused. Police have once again urged citizens to avoid clicking on suspicious links or sharing personal banking details with unknown callers claiming to represent service providers.