Cyber fraudster disguised as bank agent dupes man of Rs 2 lakh in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: A cyber fraudster disguised as a customer care agent of State Bank of India (SBI) has duped a man of about Rs 2 lakh in Khandagiri area here.

A complaint in this regard was lodged at Cybercrime Help Desk of Bhubaneswar UPD today.

Sharing details of the case, DCP Umashankar Dash said the victim had search for SBI customer care’s number on Google as he had some doubts regarding transaction in his account. As he came across a mobile phone number on the search engine, he called on that number. Receiving the call,  the cyberfraudster impersonated himself as a customer care agent of SBI and managed to obtain all personal information from the victim before defrauding him.

“In November, we have so far received around 10 such cyber fraud cases, in which the victims have been duped of around Rs 25 lakh.  The common patter in all the cybercrimes was that mobile numbers of fraudsters are showing up on Google when someone searches for customer care contact details of any organisation,” the senior cop informed at a presser.

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He urged people not to Google customer care number of any organisation or institution, be it banking, insurance, electronics or any service provider. He advised the public to get the genuine customer care number of a company from its official website to seek assistance. Most of the companies have toll-free number instead of mobile phone number for customer care services, he added.

Awareness is the only way to curb such growing cybercrimes, the DCP added.