The victim, in her complaint lodged on Tuesday, stated that she received a message stating that both her cards had been blocked. Realising something was wrong; she checked her phone and discovered that it had been hacked by the scammer.
Hyderabad: A fraudster, impostering a southern discom power officer, duped a 53-year-old woman employee of Rs.1,05,187. The fraudster called the victim and told her that the power connection to her house would be cut off due to non-payment of electricity bills.
To resolve the issue, the scammer instructed the victim to download an app and make a token payment of Rs.5. The victim, busy with work at the time, followed the caller’s instructions without suspicion and shared her credit and debit card details, said cybercrime ACB R.G. Siva Maruthi.
The victim, in her complaint lodged on Tuesday, stated that she received a message stating that both her cards had been blocked. Realising something was wrong; she checked her phone and discovered that it had been hacked by the scammer.
The scammer by then had gained control over her calls, SMS, WhatsApp and other phone activities and simultaneously, fraudulent transactions were made using both her credit and debit cards, leading to a total financial loss of Rs.1,05,187, the ACP said.
When the victim attempted to contact the cyber police, she was unable to generate OTPs on her phone. Since both her phone and banking details had been compromised, she was unable to track the transactions or take immediate action, he added.
