Disappointed with police inaction, farmer takes on cybercriminal, recovers lakhs lost in fraud

A farmer became a victim of a cyber fraud when his 26-year-old son Harsh Vardhan opened a link from a phishing message.

Within minutes, more than Rs. 8 lakh was withdrawn from his account in four different transactions. (Pexels)

55-year-old Pawan Kumar Soni, a farmer based in Sri Ganganagar City in Rajasthan, became a victim of a cyber fraud when his 26-year-old son Harsh Vardhan opened a link from a phishing message that flashed on his mobile phone. Within minutes, more than Rs. 8 lakh was withdrawn from his account in four different transactions.

Vardhan, who lives in Dwarka in Delhi, had his phone number registered with his father's account at the State Bank of India branch of Sri Ganganagar City.

The message, which was delivered on his mobile at around 3.45 PM on Saturday, January 7, said, "Your account is blocked, please update your KYC."

Harsh already had a YONO application but the moment he clicked on the link, another duplicate app downloaded on his phone.

"I thought that I should update my KYC on this new app so I entered my user ID and password. Suddenly, I started receiving messages for the withdrawal of money from my father's account and in seven minutes we lost ₹8,03,899," Vardhan said.

Later on, he realised that with the help of the duplicate app, his phone was hacked and the user ID and password that he had entered, were accessed by a cyber fraud sitting somewhere else.

The money swindled was a loan that his father had taken under Kisan Credit Card Scheme for farming purposes.

Vardhan called his father in Ganganagar City, who rushed to the bank to inform the manager. Vardhan went to the District Cyber Cell in Dwarka where he was asked to lodge an online complaint and visit the office on any working day.

The bank manager, at the request of his father, acted swiftly and called the local cyber cell. The manager also sent an email to financial institutions to get those accounts blocked in which the money was transferred.

Soni said, "The manager informed me that money went from my account to three accounts - ₹5 lakh and 1.24 lakh went into PayU, 1,54,899 was transferred into CCAvenue, and the rest ₹25,000 went into Axis Bank."

Both PayU and CCAvenue are digital payment companies that act as a bridge between customers and business ventures. They collect payments from buyers when they make online purchases and deliver these to the merchants' bank accounts.

"The bank manager informed me that PayU reverted to his email and said that it withheld the money. It also said that if it wouldn't receive any email from the cybercrime dept within two days for the reversal of the amount, it would release the money into the merchant's account," Soni alleged.

CCAvenue said that it also responded to the cyber officials and provided all information on January 7, when the company came to know about the said fraud.

On the other hand, his son Vardhan made an online complaint and, two days later, on Monday, went to lodge an FIR which was denied.

"Then I met the additional DCP who directed the SHO to lodge an FIR. Finally, it was lodged on January 10, three days after the fraud happened," he said.

Vardhan then requested the Dwarka Cyber Cell to email PayU asking it to remit the money back into his father's account. "The police personnel made only hollow promises and did nothing," Vardhan alleged.

His father then approached the cyber cell of Ganganagar City. They wrote to PayU and he got back 6,24,000 money into his account.

But Soni was adamant to track the money trail in Axis Bank and CCAvenue.

"On my request, my relatives' friends who are digital finance professionals tracked it and found that 25,000 that went into Axis bank was withdrawn from an ATM in Kolkata," Soni said.

"Another ₹1,54,899, which was transferred to CCAvenue, ₹1,20,000 of that money was used by the fraudster to buy some stuff from a Jio store in Kolkata," Soni said, adding, he spoke to the concerned police station in Kolkata but they said that unless they would get it in writing from Delhi Police, they would not do anything.

He alleged that during all this time, he and his son kept telling Dwarka's cyber cell to write to Axis Bank, CCAvenue and Kolkata Police but they kept stalling him and did it only on January 23 which was too late.

"I have found out his name and address as well," Soni said, alleging that such fraudsters register themselves as merchants with digital payment companies which don't do proper due diligence while checking their KYC.

"When I can find the money trail, why can't the police? they can do it more quickly and easily," Soni said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Dwarka, Harsha Vardhan told PTI that Delhi Police receive a large number of complaints on ICMS (Integrated Complaint Management System) portal regularly.

"We process them and seek details from the concerned agencies/institutions. In the present case, the complaint was received on January 9 in the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and FIR was registered on January 10. Account details were sought from bank. On receiving the details, mails were sent. There is always scope to improve and do things faster but we also face delays from banks in getting details," Harsha Vardhan said.

Fintech experts say that since the end customer is the worst affected victim of phishing scams, it's natural to expect them to be more vigilant, however, the payment networks and banks also have a big responsibility by not allowing such accounts to set up and operate.

"Adopting stringent KYC procedures will enable financial institutions to quickly map fraudulent money and to hold the money at their end," Satyam Kumar, a former banker who heads a digital NBFC, LoanTap, said.