Lucknow family loses Rs 16 lakh in an online fraud

A family in Lucknow fell prey to an online scam and lost Rs 16 lakh. Online scams are on a rise and that is one thing we should be wary of while surfing the internet. The scammers are always on a lookout for vulnerable people who can fall for the scams easily. Sending fraudulent links via WhatsApp is the most popular method used by hackers to dupe people. But this Lucknow family was duped using a SIM card.

As per an IANS report, a Lucknow-based man and his two sons lost Rs 16 lakhs after scammers obtained a new SIM card for his mobile number and lodged an FIR about a missing SIM by submitting a fake aadhar. A complaint has now been filed at the cyber cell.

Divyansh Singh of Chand Garden in Aliganj told the news agency that he had checked his bank balance on June 3 and found out that someone has withdrawn cash from his account. "I later found that the miscreants also had siphoned off money from the bank account of my father and brother. They withdrew a total of Rs 16.04 lakh from all the three bank accounts," he said.

Singh then contacted the bank and was informed that the miscreants withdrew the money on May 31 from his bank through net banking in which his BSNL mobile number was used.

"I further queried about the same from the telecom Mahanagar office and was told that someone applied for a new SIM card for my mobile number using e- FIR," he added.

SP, Cyber cell, Triveni Singh, told IANS that preliminary investigations reveal that THE fraudsters procured the SIM card of the victim and then the accused also got hold of the Aadhar card and debit card of the victim.She did not rule out the involvement of bank employees and telecom operators in the fraud.