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Cyber fraudsters duped Rs 1 lakh from a doctor's account in Kochi

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Express News Service    04 December 2019

On Monday, around 6.55 am, Dr Mohammed Sabir, who works in a leading private hospital in the Kochi city, received a message that Rs 10,000 had been withdrawn from his bank account. He then received another message notifying him about another transaction for the same amount. One after the other messages and before he could act, he had already lost a total of Rs 1 lakh within 15 minutes.

The doctor at Lakeshore Hospital, Kochi shortlyrealized what had happened and he became the latest victim of cyber fraudsters.

Dr Sabir said that between 6.55 am and 7.10 am, he received a total of 10 messages stating that Rs 10,000 each had been withdrawn in 10 transactions. Four transactions were done at an SBI ATM at Mundamveli and six transactions were done at an IndusInd Bank ATM. He said he had no clue how the fraudsters got the details of his card and the PIN. He blocked the card immediately and around 10.34 pm, the fraudsters tried to access his account from another ATM, but failed as the card has already been blocked.

This is the third incident of cyber fraud being reported by two doctors and a technical employee of the same hospital, who have accounts in the same bank.

The first incident was reported in April 2012 when oncologist Dr Shabbir Khan lost Rs 11.14 lakh in a day. The second incident occurred on 11th October 2019 when Thomas Mathew, a technical staff at the hospital, received an SMS stating that Rs 40,000 had been withdrawn from his bank account.

Officers who are attached with the Thoppumpady police station and with whom Dr Sabir had lodged a complaint, said that they had launched a detailed investigation of these incidents and will collect CCTV visuals from the ATMs from where the transactions were done to identify the culprits.

Dr Sabir said he had never used his card for any online transaction but did swipe it at few shops. The fraudsters might have accessed the card details from one of these.

The police officers are suspicious that the fraudsters might have forged a card of the bank to withdraw money from ATMs. An officer said that the fraudsters might have collected the card details via skimming or there might be someone inside the bank who could have helped them.

A spokesperson of the bank told TNIE that the matter is under police investigation and they are fully cooperating with the authorities for a timely resolution. Protecting the interests of their customers is of utmost importance. As a responsible institution, they will place highest importance to all security-related matters at all customer touch-points.

Source: The New Indian Express

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