Crook impersonates Gurugram municipal official to steal Rs 50,000 from woman over water bill | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: An Indian American on vacation in the city fell prey to cybercrime recently, losing over Rs 50,000. The crook called her, impersonating a municipal official from Gurugram, and told her the water bill for her sister’s house was due, before managing to siphon off Rs 50,501 from her credit card. He attempted to steal more money, but the transactions were declined as her card limit had been hit.In her complaint to CK Achukattu police on July 4, Sarika (name changed), who stays in south Bengaluru, said the fraud occurred between 7.15pm and 8pm on June 23. She received a call from +916296224711 around 7.15pm. The caller introduced himself as Deepak, municipal official from Gurugram, and said a water bill was pending for a property belonging to her in Palam Vihar, Gurugram.When she told him the property used to be owned by her sister but was sold a year ago, the fraudster said the water bill for March this year was pending. He said her mobile number and email ID were mentioned in municipal records, and she had to pay up to avoid further legal consequences.To convince Sarika he was a genuine municipal officer, the fraudster shared the name of her younger sister, her husband and the house address. He then shared via WhatsApp a receipt of the pending bill with her brother-in-law’s name, and her mobile phone and email ID.The fraudster also informed her that he could help unlink her mobile number and email ID from the property, so she wouldn’t receive any alerts or calls over it in the future. He asked her to share her mobile screen, and she obliged. He then asked her to make a nominal payment of Rs 10 to the municipal corporation. According to Sarika, the crook used the shared screen to read her OTPs. On his insistence, she also shared her SBI credit card details with him.At first, Rs 10 was debited from her credit card. Then, another transaction for Rs 20 was done on the pretext of confirming her account. In subsequent transactions, Rs 50,501 was debited from her card.Realising it was a fraud, she hung up after telling Deepak she would call cybercrime police. Even after that, there were two more attempts to siphon off money from her card, but those failed as her card limit had been hit. Furthermore, when she shared her mobile screen with the fraudster, he had asked her to dial a number starting with *. Subsequently, when she contacted the bank to deactivate the account, the calls were forwarded to some other number, Sarika said.Sarika immediately contacted the bank, provided details of the transactions, and had her account deactivated. She also rushed to CEN crime police station. The cops asked her to approach local police as the lost amount was under Rs 2 lakh.