Fraud posing as e-wallet firm customer care agent dupes man

Ludhiana: A city resident has lost Rs 1.89 lakh to online fraudsters, one of whom posed as a customer care agent of an e-wallet company. The FIR was lodged on Sunday following an investigation.
The victim, Rahul Sharma, said though he had blocked transactions through his debit card, the accused managed to transfer money from his account and challenged him on phone to trace them.
The accused have been identified as Antar Singh of Madhya Pradesh, Ambarasu Nachimuthu, Ezhilarasi Vadizhagan, S Varadarajan, residents of Tamil Nadu, Akash Sonkar of Howrah, West Bengal, and Alijan SK of Murshidabad, West Bengal.
Rahul, a labourer and resident of Tibba Road, said, “On November 14, I had recharged my cellphone for Rs 219 using mobile phone application Phone Pay. As Rs 219 were deducted twice from my account, I searched on Google the contact number of Phone Pay customer care. I came across a mobile number and called on it, but the call went unanswered.”
The next day, he received a call from an unidentified number. “The caller introduced himself as executive of the application. He made me dial a code on the application. As I entered the numbers, Rs 1.89 lakh were transferred from my bank account linked with the application,” he added.
On November 17, Rahul filed a police complaint.
Tibba Road police station ASI Sukhdeep Singh said after investigation, an FIR was lodged against the accused under sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. “The money was transferred from Rahul’s account to those of the accused, who have been booked,” he added.