Mangaluru doctor loses 22 lakh to online fraud

An alert banker prevented a doctor in the city from losing more than ₹22 lakh to online fraud, who had promised 25 lakh US Dollars.

A person from abroad called the doctor and promised 25 lakh US Dollars in appreciation of the former’s good work. A person claiming to be a Customs Officer called the doctor and asked latter to pay customs duty for a parcel received in latter’s name.

For three days, the doctor visited a local branch of Canara Bank to transfer an amount to different accounts. Suspicious of the transactions of the customer, the Canara Bank official called the Cyber Economic and Narcotic Crime (CEN) police and asked the police to verify the transactions.

On Saturday, the CEN police found out that the doctor was a victim of cyber fraud and had lost ₹22 lakh already. After being made aware of the fraud, the doctor did not transfer further amount, and he filed a complaint with the CEN police.

In a statement, Police Commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy said the police recently held meeting of bankers. They were asked to keep monitoring suspicious transactions of customers and identify potential cyber frauds to protect the customers. The outreach act of the police has helped to save doctor from losing money further, Mr. Reddy said.