Vikarabad: Farmer loses Rs 4 lakh from account

Hyderabad: Fraudsters allegedly emptied Rs 4.34 lakh from the bank account of a farmer without his knowledge in Vikarabad district, police said on Thursday.

Farmer Kesannagari Amrutha Reddy, 57, told the police that he had received the money into his bank account after the sale of the cotton that he had grown in his field this season.

Upon investigation, it was found that the money had been transferred to e-wallets like Paytm and into some accounts with Ola and Amazon.

Mr Amrutha Reddy had sold the cotton that he had grown in his fiend in Regadimamidipally village in Pudur mandal of Vikarabad district to the Cotton Corporation of India. On February 18, he received a text message on his mobile phone (Symbian OS) that the CCI had deposited Rs 4,34,569 into his bank account.

The next morning, he received multiple messages stating that money was being debited from his bank account. Worried by the stream of messages, Mr Amrutha Reddy rushed to the SBI branch at Chengomul and inquired with the officials only to find that the money had been sent to different e-wallet accounts. Mr Reddy immediately approached the Chengomul police and lodged a complaint. Chengomul police sub-inspector K. Arun Kumar said Mr Amrutha Reddy was not using a smartphone and did not have any applications installed on his feature phone for them to suspect hacking.

“There were some incidents reported in the city where the victims were not using a smartphone, but the money was transferred from their bank accounts fraudulently. The money is said to be have been transferred into e-wallets in those case,” Mr Arun Kumar said.