Mumbai: 81-year-old woman loses Rs 2 lakh in online fraud

An 81-year-old widow who lost approximately Rs 2 lakh in an internet scam after being persuaded to use reward points supplied in the name of a well-known bank and whose son-in-law is a vice admiral-rank officer in the Indian Navy here.

The woman lodged a complaint in this connection with the Cuffe Parade police station in south Mumbai on Tuesday evening, an official said.

The victim, who is a vice admiral-rank navy officer, resides at the Naval Officers' Residential Area (NOFRA) in Colaba with her daughter and son-in-law, he claimed. The woman claimed that on September 3, in the evening, she received a message on her phone asking her to use reward points worth Rs 5,899 right away because it was the last day to do so. She was instructed to open a URL that was included in the message, he continued.

The next day, the woman clicked the link, which took her to the official page of the bank. As per the instructions given on the home page, she was asked to tick the one-time password (OTP) option. After doing so, she received a six-digit OTP on her mobile phone, which she entered on the portal. But she received the same instruction two more times. This way, she entered the OTP thrice, he said. According to him, the woman discovered that three transactions of Rs 89,798, Rs 89,813 and Rs 19,858 had been made to her bank account when she checked the bank's mobile app.

She then alerted her son-in-law about it, who said she has been duped by a cyber fraudster, following which she approached a branch of the bank, from where she went to the police station to file her complaint, the police official said.