Kolkata: 12 fall prey to KYC cons in 72 hours, cops issue warning

KOLKATA: The detective department’s crackdown seems to have had little effect on e-wallet frauds in the city, with 12 cases being reported from Kolkata, Bidhannagar, and Barrackpore police areas over the past 72 hours. TOI accessed at least six FIRs, the most prominent ones being reported from Girish Park, Netaji Nagar, Patuli, Salt Lake and Garfa. The total loss has been estimated at Rs 5 lakh.
With around 50 complaints being lodged over the past two months, joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma again issued an warning, asking people, especially senior citizens, not to fall in the trap of the fraudsters.

One such victim was 65-year-old Sonali Biswas, a resident of Madan Chatterjee Street at Girish Park, who received a message last Sunday evening, stating her e-wallet would be blocked if KYC formalities were not completed. Panicking, she responded to the message, and following “instructions” given out, she downloaded a an app, TeamViewer QuickSupport, on her mobile and shared an OTP. The app allowed the accused to gain control over her mobile. Shortly, she received five messages from her bank, alerting her that Rs 90,299 had been debited from her account in five transactions. At Netaji Nagar, Amiya Basu of Baikuntha Apartment alleged she was coaxed into disclosing her ATM card details and share OTP on the pretext of filling up a KYC form on Sunday. A total of Rs 73,347 was siphoned off from her account, police said.
According to police, the accused targeted customer by asking them to download an application on their mobiles or computers to facilitate the KYC process. These applications include Anydesk and TeamViewer Quicksupport, said police sources, adding the accused gained access to the victims’ gadgets and siphoned off money from their accounts by using their bank details.
Another victim was Narendra Kumar Das (46), a resident of Patuli Township, lodged a complaint that around 5:30pm on Sunday, he received a text and a call from an unknown number, asking him to upgrade the KYC for his e-wallet. After he shared his bank details and OTP, Rs 65,461 was withdrawn from his account, “causing wrongful loss to the complainant”. Salt Lake’s Ashmi Bhattacharya, who lives in FE Block, reportedly lost Rs 21,000 after she was also asked to download TeamViewer QuickSupport.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma had taken to social media in November last year to plead with customers to maintain caution and not fall for scam messages and emails from fraudsters, pretending to be company officials. “Pls (please) don’t trust any SMS sent on blocking your Paytm account or suggestion to do a KYC. These are fraudsters…” Sharma had tweeted.