Fraud : 71-Year-Old Pune Man Scammed of Rs 5.3 Lakh While Returning Faulty Charger

 

A 71-year-old senior citizen from Pune lost over Rs 5.3 lakh after attempting to return a faulty phone charger purchased online for Rs 800. The incident occurred when he unknowingly contacted a fraudulent customer service number for the e-commerce platform, where cyber criminals tricked him into sharing multiple One-Time Passwords (OTPs), enabling them to siphon off funds from his bank account.

The senior citizen, a retired resident of Sahakar Nagar, registered an FIR earlier this week at the Parvati police station. A few months earlier, he had purchased a car phone charger from a well-known e-commerce website for approximately Rs 800. When the charger malfunctioned, he decided to seek a replacement or return.

In search of customer support, he found a number online and called it. The individual on the other end assured him that he would receive a follow-up call for verification. Soon after, he was contacted again and informed that to resolve the issue, he needed to pay a nominal service fee of Rs 2. The caller sent a link for the payment via phone messenger.

Shortly after making the payment, the complainant was asked to share a code he received via SMS. The fraudster claimed there was a system error and requested the complainant to share the code five more times, which he did. It was only when his bank contacted him to inform him that his online banking was being frozen due to a series of fraudulent transactions that he realized he had been scammed.

In total, the complainant lost Rs 5.36 lakh through six transactions. He promptly reported the matter to the cyber police, leading to the registration of an FIR at Parvati police station. Authorities have since launched an investigation into the phone numbers and bank accounts used by the fraudsters.