Malad Police has assisted a woman in recovering ₹1.61 lakh that was stolen from her account under the pretext of updating the Know Your Customer (KYC) details. The 37-year old woman approached the police on July 13 after realizing what had occurred. The transaction was eventually reversed, thus helping the woman get her money back.
As per the police, the woman received a message which she thought was sent by her mobile network provider. The message asked her to update her KYC details or risk losing the mobile connection.
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Since the message arrived from a number, she decided to call it. The lady was then asked by the person to download an application that gave the scammer access to her phone. Shortly after, the scammer asked her to send ₹10 to an account.
While she was sending the money, the scammer received access to her bank details and managed to transfer ₹1.61 lakh out of her account.
Upon explaining her situation to Malad Police, officials reached out to the e-wallet company that transferred the money out of her account and had the money reversed.
Assistant Police Inspector at Malad Police Station, Vivek Tambe said, “We could recover the entire amount as she approached us within a few hours time, which we term the ‘golden hours’. The most important thing in such cases is to carry your bank statement to the police station so that the police know details of the bank account or e-wallet, where the money is transferred, making it easy for us to stop the money from being withdrawn.”
Police officials explained that such cybercriminals ask victims to download apps like TeamViewer or QuickSupport to obtain remote access to the phones. This allows the culprit to snoop through your phone and send money using bank apps or e-wallets.
The best way to keep yourself safe from such incidents is to never share your KYC details or download an app without knowing what it can do.
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