Bhubaneswar: A woman in Bhubaneswar lost Rs 2.58 lakh to fraudulent online transactions on her credit cards after being tricked by a scamster.
The fraud came to light after the complainant, Itishree Kanungo of Shree Kshetra Nagar in Keshura area of Bhubaneswar, lodged a complaint at Sahid Nagar police station today.
As per her complaint, she got a call from the imposter who introduced himself as bank official to deactivate the insurance policies purportedly activated in her name and the premium of which would be charged from her credit cards if she does not deactivate it at once.
The caller tricked Itishree into sharing details of her credit cards like CVV numbers and the subsequent OTPs she received on her mobile. However, she was shocked when a total of Rs 2.58 lakh was spent on her cards in four separate transactions after an hour or two.
Itishree rushed to the Sahid Nagar Police Station to lodge a complaint in this connection, after which it was forwarded to the cyber cell which is currently investigating the matter.
In a related incident, a youth from Sahid nagar area was duped to the tune of Rs 53, 000 after the cyber fraudsters lured him into providing card details by offering him a card protection plan. However, he proved to be lucky enough as the cyber cell is reportedly in the process of getting a refund of Rs 9000 to the bank account of this guy.
It is worthwhile to mention here that, a sudden increase in cyber frauds in Odisha prompted the Commissionerate Police to establish a dedicated cell for cyber fraud cases.
Speaking about the cases, Bhubaneswar DCP, Umashankar Das said, "We are receiving almost 100 calls a day in cyber cell. However, a lot of calls were from outside of the smart city."
"We have managed to bring back Rs 9000 duped from a youth and further investigation is on in this connection," added Das.
Notably, the cyber cell has already reported 63 mobile numbers of fraudsters to the centre.
(Edited By Ramakanta Biswas)