Baljit Singh, a resident of Sushant Lok in Gurgaon, received a call from someone claiming to be an insurance agent, offering a cashless insurance policy. Singh felt so convinced that he, without thinking much, shared his bank details with him. Within seconds, he got a message on his mobile phone that said Rs 11,000 has been debited from his account. He had not consented to the payment.
He is not alone, of course.
Asha Sohail, resident of South City 2, shared a similar experience. “I received a call from a guy who said he was from SBI. He took my credit card details, saying it was a verification call. After a few minutes, I got a text on my phone saying Rs 27,000 had been withdrawn from my account. I could only think of calling up my bank and blocking my card,” she recounted.
In another incident, Pankaj Thakran of Nirvana Country also got a call from a person claiming to be an RBI manager! He took Thakran's debit card details, and Rs 25,000 got debited from his card thrice in quick succession.
Post-demonetisation, the number of cyber crimes has gone up drastically.
In the current week alone, the cyber crime department received more than half a dozen complaints of people being similarly duped.
Residents say that before pushing for cashless transactions, the government should have made cyber cells more efficient and cyber laws more stringent. The city’s cyber cell is hardly effective in dealing with such cases, they feel.
RWA general secretary of Sector 45, Surendra Kaushik, cautioned, "These fraudsters are looting our hard-earned money. We should be more careful of such calls! Any hint of foul play and we should inform the police immediately.”
Suncity RWA general secretary VM Singh said, “Many residents from our society have been victimised by cyber fraudsters. I think the government should make the laws against cyber crimes more stringent. Only then will these conmen be deterred."
However, Gurgaon police spokesperson ACP Manish Sehgal was hopeful the culprits would soon be nabbed. He appealed to the residents to not share their card and bank details with anyone — and inform the police immediately in case they get such a call.
