Nagpur: Cyber fraudsters dupe retired employee of Rs 5.5 lakh in pension card scam

Cyber fraudsters have targeted a 60-year-old retired employee in the Ajni police station area of Nagpur in the name of getting a pension card made. The victim was sent a link, and after he entered his banking details on it, about Rs 5.5 lakh was siphoned off from his account.

According to the police complaint, the victim is a retired employee of the public works department and lives at Empress Mill Society in Shrinagar. On September 16, he received a call from an unknown mobile number. The caller, claiming to be associated with the pension card process, asked whether his pension card had arrived.

The caller then sent the victim a link and told him he needed to fill in the required information on it to get the pension card made. According to the police, the victim opened the link and entered details related to his bank account and debit card as instructed.

As soon as they obtained this information, the cyber fraudsters carried out online transactions without the victim's knowledge and transferred about Rs 5.5 lakh out of his bank account. The victim learnt of the fraud only after the money had been withdrawn, following which he went to the Ajni police station and lodged a complaint.

Based on the complaint, Ajni police have registered a case under the relevant legal sections against the holder of the mobile number from which the victim was called. The accused has not been arrested so far. Police are tracing the mobile number and examining the online transaction along with other related digital evidence.

Police have appealed to people not to share bank account details, debit or credit card information, OTPs, PINs or any other financial information on links received from unknown callers or messages, even if the caller claims to be from a government department or a pension-related service.