74-yr-old loses Rs 5.5L in ‘refund’ scam over 5 days

Ahmedabad: A 74-year-old resident of the city fell victim to a new cyberfraud modus operandi in which scammers emotionally manipulated him into transferring Rs 5.55 lakh over five days, claiming they mistakenly sent money to his bank account. A complaint was filed with the Cybercrime police on Saturday.According to the FIR, the elderly man, who does not use social media and lives with his family in Vadaj, received a call on Feb 10 from a person identifying himself as "Mohan". The caller claimed that funds were wrongly credited to the senior citizen's bank account due to a "closed payment" error and requested that the money be returned urgently.
Soon after, the victim received SMS alerts appearing to show deposits of Rs 45,500 and Rs 50,500. During the call, the caller allegedly began crying and pleaded for the money to be refunded. He then told the victim that his relative would send a payment request to collect the amount.Another caller contacted the senior citizen and guided him to open a digital payment app and approve "refund" requests. Believing the messages to be genuine, the victim transferred the amounts.The pattern continued between Feb 10 and Feb 15, with the fraudsters sending similar SMS alerts showing higher sums and repeatedly requesting refunds. In total, the elderly man transferred Rs 5,55,976. It was only after visiting his bank that he realized no extra money was ever credited; the transfers were made from his own savings. When the callers became unreachable, he contacted the cybercrime helpline and later lodged a formal complaint.Cybercrime police registered a case of cheating and breach of trust under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with charges under the Information Technology Act, and began an investigation.