A 64-year-old actress from Mumbai’s Vile Parle, who has acted in Marathi movies, has said she was cheated of Rs 1.48 lakh after she received a text message purported to be sent by her telecom operator asking her to update her personal details. She was tricked into revealing her ATM card details, which were used to withdraw the money, she said.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered with the Vile Parle police station on February 26. The actress told the police she received a text message on her husband’s mobile phone number. The message purported to be sent by Airtel said that the Know Your Customer (KYC) has not been updated by her husband and the procedure must be completed on the mobile number sent to them otherwise the number will be blocked.
The woman called on the number and the fraudster impersonating an Airtel executive asked her to download and install the Quick Support application. The application allows a third party to access people’s mobile activities.
The actress said she believed in the person and followed his instructions. He then asked her to pay Rs 10 on a particular account as KYC fees. The woman entered her banking details which the fraudster was able to see due to the application. The woman became suspicious after a while and went to an Airtel shop where she was informed that they never make any phone calls to their customers.
The woman then hastened to her bank and found that the fraudster used her credit card details to withdraw Rs 1.48 lakh.
As reported earlier by The Indian Express, cyber-fraudsters impersonate Vodafone or Airtel executives and trick customers into revealing their banking details. Recently, three Vodafone customers lost over Rs 5 lakh collectively in the same type of fraud.
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