Complainant: Narendra Prabhakar Mantage
Address: A/ 904, Oberoi Gardens, Thakur Village, Kandivali (East), Mumbai 400101
Sections invoked: 419, 420 of the Indian penal code, 1860, 66c, 66d of The Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008
First Information Report: C R No 044 of 2023, Samta Nagar Police Station, Kandivali East
Date: January 16, 2023
Accused; – Rahul Sharma
The gist of the Complaint: Translated from Marathi to English on best effort basis.
The Complainant, aged 70, resides with his wife Jyoti at the above-mentioned address and possesses personal Mobile. No. 9833173379. The Complainant retired telecom employee and his household are supported by the pension received from it.
On 02.01.2023, The Complainant was at his residence, when he received an SMS from AD-SLVLTD at 01.40 pm on his mobile number, which is detailed as under
“Hello, Consumer! Your electricity will be disconnected, today at 1:15 Pm. Please update your pending bill, call contact no.8260092434 immediately, thank you SLVLTD. “
It was written like this in English. After that, the Complainant called on the given mobile number i.e. 8260092434 to inquire about the matter fearing that house electricity would be cut off. Then the accused (call receiver on the other end) told his name as Vikram Kumar and asked for Complainant’s house Tata Power consumer number, Complainant gave him the number 900000062575.
The accused informed the Complainant that, since the Complainant pays the electricity bill by giving standing instructions through a credit card, the same needs to be updated in Tata Power records and to do so online Complainant needs to download the following applications on mobile.
- Quick Support
- Forward SMS on email/phone,
The Complainant immediately downloaded both the apps on his mobile from the links given, after which the accused asked Complainant to type “Tata power bill desk” on google and pay 12 rupees in it by credit card.
The Complainant paid Rs 12 using his HDFC Visa regalia card no 4854980000703787. Then the accused replied to the Complainant, such a recent payment made through HDFC credit card was not showing up as URN in incoming SMS, and without URN number this work cannot be done, therefore if possible pay 12 rupees again using another card and tell him the URN number given in it. So, the Complainant paid 12 rupees using his RBL Bank Visa Supercard number 4391230875224646 but this time also there was no URN number in the SMS from the credit card company, now the accused asked the Complainant to open a Paytm and pay by adding the accused account details in a complainant’s bank account as a beneficiary unless that complainant will not get the URN number without adding him as the beneficiary. The complainant added his name as the account holder to account 243101504509 (IFSC ICIC0002431) mentioned by him.
Then the accused told the Complainant that he would refund 12 rupees extra paid, and the complainant said he was not interested in the refund. Then accused asked the complainant to pay 12 rupees in added account from net banking. The complainant told him that he doesn’t use net banking. The accused asked again to open Paytm and in remarks write 12 rupees only for bill update and in the pay tab enter the last 5 digits of the complainant’s mobile number, which read as Rs 73,379/-
Then complainant got scared and refused to go ahead. On that note accused said “uncle, don’t worry first five digits of your mobile will be asked again later.
Then the Complainant said that he wants to talk to some senior officer, then the accused transferred that call to the Senior Officer. Then when I asked him his name, staff ID, and position, he said his name was Rahul Sharma, Senior Manager in Tata Power, and Staff ID AWB-298520. Again that officer asked the complainant to pay Rs.73,379/-, to which the complainant said that he won’t do it. Mr. Sharma asked, “should I cancel this transaction?” The complainant said “yes” then Mr. Sharma said it will be charged to which the complainant said ok.
After this, the call got cut and the complainant got a first flashing message of Rs 2,00,000/- from the HDFC credit card and the second one of Rs 26,000/- from the RBL credit card, within two or three seconds. Then complainant received a WhatsApp call on his mobile from the mobile number 9935802859, as the complainant yelled at him and told him to cut the call, within a few seconds complainant got one after the other messages on his mobile, which he realized that Rs.4,73,609/- was debited from both his credit cards.
Then the complainant become suspicious of the said person and realized that he was being cheated, and hence went to Cyber Police Station North Regional Division- Mumbai, who sent an email to concerned people and told the complainant to file a complaint at Samata Nagar Police Station. It was noticed that on that day all the OTPs and other SMS coming to the complainant’s mobile were automatically forwarded to mobile no 8207047205. And noticed that calls were also being forwarded to someone’s mobile number. The complainant was asked to give a screenshot of the transactional activity.
The Complainant’s statement was recorded in Marathi and a copy of the same was handed over to him and he confirmed the veracity of the same.