Women lost 7 lakh ₹ due to OTP fraud

Navi Mumbai: A 40-year-old woman from Nerul in Navi Mumbai was swindled out of nearly seven lakh rupees after she shared the one-time password (OTP) with the accused 28 times over a period of one week. Banks, law authorities and the media have constantly warned citizens to not share bank details over the phone, especially the confidential CVV number and the one-time passwords. Most fraudsters cheat unsuspecting individuals out of money and masquerade as bank officials on the phone and it is important to note that no bank official will ever need to ask you for your one-time password.

The woman in question is a certain Tasneem Mujjakkar Modak who told the police that online banking is a completely alien concept to her. The victim had around Rs 7.20 lakh in her account and on May 17, she received a call from the fraud who pretended to be a banker. He told her that her debit card had been blocked due to “technical reasons”. “He asked for her card details to unblock her debit card,” said inspector (crime) B N Auti to the Times of India.

Modak proceeded to provide the goon with all the details including the 16-digit debit card number, name as printed on the card and the CVV, the paper further reports. Over the course of a week, she shared her OTP 28 times and the caller swindled her of Rs 6,98,973. Police told TOI that the transactions were carried out in Mumbai, Noida, Gurugram, Kolkata and Bengaluru and that the swindler used three mobile sim cards in order to contact Modak.