Mysurean loses Rs.1.25 lakh

Mysuru: The Cyber Crime Police have arrested a man in Bihar for swindling a total of Rs.1.25 lakh from the Bank accounts of one M.L. Parashuram, a resident of city. The arrested is 31-year-old Brij Kishore Prasad, a native of West Champaran district of Bihar, who was staying at Asansol, Paschim Bardhaman district in West Bengal.

Parashuram, who had two accounts at State Bank of India (SBI) and Corporation Bank in city, received a message on Oct.13, 2018, that his Bank account had been seized when he tried to withdraw cash from a ATM and was asked to contact the Bank Manager. Parashuram then went to the Corporation Bank ATM to withdraw cash, where he received the similar message.

On Oct.14 at about 11.30 am, Parashuram was proceeding to Periyapatna, when he received a call on his cell phone. The caller told him that his mobile phone number was linked to more than eight Bank accounts and consequently, his accounts had been seized. Claiming that officials of other Banks were with him, the caller asked him to confirm his identity by answering their questions.

Parashuram answered their questions, and even shared his debit card number to the caller. Later, the caller asked him to share an OTP number sent to his mobile number in order to reactivate his Bank accounts, to which Parashuram told the caller the OTP number he had received on his cell phone.

On Oct. 15, when Parashuram went to withdraw cash from his account, he found that a total of Rs.1.25 lakh was withdrawn from his two Bank accounts and later lodged a complaint.

Meanwhile, the Cyber Police, who had registered a case in this regard, began their investigation and traced the accused at Asansol, Paschim Bardhaman district in West Bengal, from where he was operating and arrested him besides recovering the money he had swindled. Cyber Crime Inspector M.C. Rajashekar and staff D.V. Muraligowda, Lakshmikanth, M. Shivashankar, P. Kumar and Manjula took part in the operation, according to a press release from the PRO, City Police Commissioner’s                                     Office, Mysuru.