NEW DELHI: Watch out if you receive a call from an unknown number claiming to be your bank's customer care service asking for your credit card details. A female doctor in New Friends Colony became the latest victim of a 'fake phone banking' scam when she received a call from a person claiming to be a customer care executive representing a bank and enquired about an ongoing transaction on her credit card. When the victim denied carrying out any such transaction, the "executive" asked for her credit card details to stop the transaction. The victim soon learned that Rs 80,000 had been withdrawn from her card. As per the complaint lodged by the victim a few days back, a man claiming to represent her bank, called and informed her that a high value transaction in dollars was being carried out from her card. The person asked if she was the one carrying out the transactions, which the victim denied. He further explained to her that as per new RBI guidelines the bank had to take the customers approval before allowing such transactions. The man then transferred the call to the "customer service department" which would assist the woman in stopping the transaction from being processed. The woman told cops that, after holding the call for a minute, a woman, who claimed to be another 'bank executive' came on the line and enquired about her identity. The executive then asked for the victim's credit card number, date of birth, card expiry date which she readily gave in order to stop the 'fraudulent transaction'. "The executive directed me to send an SMS 'REFUND' along with some other information to a number within the next two minutes to stop the transaction, which I did," the victim told cops. The victim also received an SMS from that number the next minute in which it said that her card had been blocked. But soon to her horror, the victim received another message after some time - this time from her real bank informing her that a transaction of Rs 40,000 on her card had been made at one 'Techprocess Sol'. "I immediately called up the customer care number of my bank to ?enquire about the status of my request to decline the transaction. It was then that I discovered that I had been cheated as the customer care executive gave me the details of two transactions which had occurred earlier that day of Rs 40,000 each and also informed that the bank had never called her," the victim said. The cops have now registered a case of fraud and are investigating the matter. Interestingly, the victim also received SMS from her bank informing her that her request for credit limit enhancement on her card been registered and that it would be processed within a week. The victim had never made this request.
TOI
