Fraudster posing as DRM officer duped retired Nagpur railway employee of Rs 32 lakh

A cyber fraudster in Nagpur duped a retired Central Railway employee of Rs 31.97 lakh by posing as an official of the DRM office. The fraudster promised to get his pension corrected and, to gain his trust, even sent fake documents over WhatsApp.

The victim has been identified as Vijay Dhabre, 61, who retired from Central Railway about a year ago. The incident took place around 11 days ago. Dhabre was at home when he received a call on his mobile phone. The caller identified himself as Dharmendra Pradhan and claimed to be calling from the DRM office.

He assured Dhabre that his pension would be corrected as per rules. He then sent some fake pension documents made in Dhabre's name over WhatsApp. Seeing these documents, Dhabre became fully convinced that the caller was indeed a railway official.

Taking advantage of this trust, the fraudster carried the scam forward. Saying he needed to fill an application for the pension correction, he asked Dhabre for his bank account details. It is alleged that during this conversation, he also got Dhabre to reveal confidential information such as his ATM card number and CVV.

As soon as he got hold of this confidential banking information, the fraudster wasted no time. Within a short while, money was transferred from Dhabre's account to another account. In total, Rs 31.97 lakh was withdrawn from his account.

After the matter came to light, Dhabre filed a complaint with the police. The incident has once again shown how people are being duped through phone calls and fake documents in the name of government offices. Railway and bank officials have repeatedly appealed that no official ever asks for information such as ATM card numbers, CVV or OTP over the phone, but people continue to fall into such traps despite this.