PAN Card Fraud: Woman duped of more than Rs. 1 lakh

The woman, named Urvashi Phetiya, resides in Andheri, Mumbai. Hindustan Times reported that the woman received 3 continuous OTPs on her mobile phone asking for a PAN card update. The SMS also contained a link to her bank account.

A police officer from Andheri police station said, “As she opened the link, she received a one-time password (OTP) on her mobile phone, which she entered as instructed in the SMS.”

As she entered the first OTP, she received 3 more OTPs. According to the police officer, just as she entered the 3 OTPs, Rs. 1.24 lakh were withdrawn from her bank account in the form of 3 transactions within 5 minutes. The woman then received a call from her bank confirming whether she had made those transactions. “That is when the tuition teacher realised that she had been duped,” the police officer further added.

The woman then immediately reported the matter to the police. The officer said, “We are tracking the number from which the complainant had received the SMS and the link. When she clicked the link, it gave the frauds complete access to her phone through some mirroring application, and then they made the transactions and also received the OTPs required to complete the online banking transactions or perhaps the frauds sent her a google document which gave them access to her phone.”

The case is now being handled by the Andheri police, taking help from the cybercrime department to catch these criminals who committed fraud.