A cybercriminal disguised as a customer care agent of the State Bank of India (SBI) has duped a man of Rs 2 lakh in the Khandagiri area of Bhubaneswar.
A complaint in this connection was lodged with the Cybercrime Help Desk of the Bhubaneswar Urban Police District on Saturday.
DCP Umashankar Dash said the victim had searched for SBI customer care’s number on Google as he had some doubts regarding transaction in his account. As he came across a mobile phone number on the search engine, he called on that number.
Receiving the call, the cyberfraudster impersonated himself as a customer care agent of SBI and managed to obtain all personal information from the victim before defrauding him. “In November, we have so far received around 10 such cyber fraud cases, in which the victims have been duped of around Rs 25 lakh. The common pattern in all the cybercrimes was that mobile numbers of fraudsters are showing up on Google when someone searches for customer care contact details of any organisation,” said Dash.
He urged people not to Google customer care number of any organisation or institution, be it banking, insurance, electronics or any service provider. Awareness is the only way to curb such growing cybercrimes, the DCP added.