Mysore/Mysuru: Online fraudsters are getting innovative and are finding new methods to deceive the gullible. Earlier, they used to send website links to unsuspecting people and withdraw money from bank accounts of those who clicked on the link sent to them. But now, fraudsters arrange loans for you from a Bank and once the loan money is deposited in your account, they loot it.

An incident reported from Bidadi, Ramanagar district, describes the modus operandi of the fraudsters.

Manjunath, aged 41 years, an employee of a factory in Bidadi, has an account in ICICI Bank, Pune branch, which is his savings bank salary account and his employers regularly remit his salary to this account.

On Nov. 27 evening, he received a message on his mobile from mobile number 62913-49260 which stated that he has not paid his electricity bill and power supply will be disconnected if he did not pay the balance of Rs. 15 immediately. This message had a link to pay Rs. 15. Manjunath promptly made the payment by clicking on the link. To his surprise, he found that his mobile was blocked for two hours after he made the payment.

At about 8 pm, Manjunath received an e-mail which said that his ICICI Bank account was credited Rs. 24 lakh, as loan.  Wondering how an amount can be credited as loan when he has not applied for any, Manjunath went to the nearest ATM and to his surprise found that Rs. 24 lakh was indeed credited to his ICICI Bank account.

Since the day was Sunday, he thought of contacting his Bank on the next day. Within minutes, he started receiving messages about the withdrawal of Rs. 1 lakh from his account. In about 20 minutes, he received 7 such messages and he panicked to see Rs. 7 lakh withdrawn from his Bank account. Though, he tried to block his bank account he couldn’t. Then Manjunath contacted his wife who called the customer care and got his bank account blocked.

When Manjunath enquired the Bank about how he got a loan when he has not applied for it, Bank officials told him that since he had an account in the bank, they sanctioned loan within three minutes and credited to his bank account. “When I verified the loan application, I noticed that it was not even filled properly,” Manjunath told Star of Mysore.

Obviously, the fraudster hacked Manjunath’s Bank account after he clicked on the link, applied for Bank loan and after the amount was credited to his account, they immediately started withdrawing money. “Any further delay in blocking my Bank account would have enabled the fraudsters to withdraw the entire Rs. 24 lakh and I would have unnecessarily become a debtor,” Manjunath added.

“I can’t understand how a Bank can sanction loan of Rs. 24 lakh to somebody who has not applied for it in just three minutes, that too at 8 pm on Sunday, a holiday,” Manjunath said and added that he has lodged a complaint at Ramanagar District Police Station.