A 30-year-old woman was allegedly duped to the tune of ₹3.75 lakh by a man posing as a senior police official and threatening her over sending an illegal courier to Taiwan from Mumbai, said the police.
The accused made a video call to the victim, and siphoned off the money by convincing her to share her one-time-password (OTP) with him and verifying her Aadhaar card, police said.
Her husband Chirag Varshney, 37, a private employee and resident of Amrapali Sapphire residential society, reported the matter in a complaint at Sector 39 police station, said additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) (Noida) Manish Kumar Mishra.
“In his police complaint, Chirag stated that on Friday around 10.30 pm, his wife, Sukirti Verma, who works at a private firm, received a phone call from an unidentified number. The caller said that her courier, which was supposed to be delivered in Taiwan from Mumbai, was stopped by customs officials after they found something illegal inside it,” said another police official requesting anonymity.
In another video call on Skype, the accused sought her details. He even confirmed with Sukirti her Aadhaar card number, and then asked her about the one-time password (OTP) that she received.
“Just as she revealed her OTP, ₹375,278 were siphoned from her bank account. And then she realised that she had actually fallen into a trap,” said station house officer (SHO), Section 39, Jitendra Kumar.
Following her husband’s complaint, a case under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Information Technology (IT) Act was registered against the unidentified accused at Sector 39 police station on Saturday.
The case has been transferred to the cyber helpdesk for further investigation.