Pune: Woman loses Rs 99,000 online in dinner reservation fraud

PUNE: A 29-year-old woman was cheated of Rs 99,000 earlier this month while booking a table at a popular restaurant on Jangli Maharaj Road from a number listed online.
The man who took the call identified himself as the manager of the restaurant and shared a link with the woman to book the table against a payment of Rs 25. Within minutes of clicking the link, the money was siphoned off from her account.
Dattawadi police on Monday registered a cheating case after the woman, who lives at Parvati Payatha and works as an executive with a prominent finance company, lodged a complaint.
The police said the woman wanted to take her family out for dinner on November 3 and found a number on a website which was listed as that of the restaurant. The man who took her call assured to adjust the "table reservation charge" against the final bill at the restaurant.
A police officer said, "The man sent her a text message with a link to make the payment. On clicking the link, a programme got downloaded on her cellphone. She then opened a unified payment interface (UPI) application on her cellphone and keyed in her personal account number (PIN)," he said.