Ramakanta Biswas

Cuttack: As dependency of users on digital payment apps continue to rise, number of people falling prey to fraudulence in cyber space also proportionately increases. In a fresh incident, report of a Paytm customer losing Rs 44,000 to a fraud in updation of Know Your Customer (KYC) details has come to fore in Cuttack.

The youth, Chandrasekhar Muduli of CDA area in the city alleged that Rs 44,000 was duped from his credit card on the pretext of verification of his documents of address proof and identity proof under KYC process.

Narrating details about the fraud, Muduli said he was facing problems while making wallet to wallet money transfer though his Paytm app and tried to sort out the issue by completing the KYC process.

“I followed the procedures mentioned in the app to carry out the KYC and an appointment was booked. I immediately contacted the given number and I got a message that ‘I will call you back’. When I called up the number, the caller identified himself as an employee of Paytm and asked me to follow some procedures to complete the KYC,” he said.

The caller reportedly obtained details of Muduli’s credit card and diverted Rs 44,000 from the account.

Further narrating the incident, Muduli said, “I approached Sector 7 police station, but the officials asked me to visit cyber police station. The officials at the cyber police station noted down details of my complaint,” he added.

Sources said, a probe has been initiated into the incident.

Notably, two such cases of online fraud had come to fore in Odisha including one in the Capital city Bhubaneswar recently. In both cases, the conmen identified themselves as employees of online payment applications and lured the users with lucrative offers before duping them of thousands of rupees.

While a youth, Sunu Ghadei of Bhubaneswar reportedly lost Rs 38,000 to the online fraud, another user, Manish Sahu of Ranpur NAC area in Nayagarh district, also fell prey to the fraud and lost Rs 41,000.

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