A 43-year-old woman was duped of Rs 3.86 lakh by a cyber-fraudster, who impersonated as a SBI bank official, and told her that she has won Rs 25 lakh lottery making her deposit the cheated amount as processing fees and other miscellaneous fees. An FIR was registered with the Wadala police station on November 3.
The complainant told the Wadala police that she works as a caretaker for patients and lives with her four children. The incident took place between September 8 to September 17. The woman received a Whatsapp call from the cyber-fraudster who impersonated SBI bank’s manager Akash Verma. The fraud said he was calling from SBI’s Mumbai branch.
He told the woman that she had won a lottery of Rs 25 lakh. To claim the lottery, he told her to pay processing fees, unlocking computer fees, switching her savings account to current account among other fees.
When the woman realized that she is being duped she said she did not want the lottery money and asked for a refund. On the pretext of returning her money, the fraudster tricked her into sending more money. In all she ended up paying Rs 3.86 lakh in a total of 14 transactions.
The woman has given police all the four mobile numbers used by the fraudster to contact her. The police is trying to trace the accused.