BENGALURU: A 43-year-old contractor lost nearly Rs 1 lakh while making a Rs 5 top-up recharge to change his DTH plan after calling a dubious customer care number he had found through searching the Internet
The contractor in his complaint to east CEN crime police said he did a Internet search to find the customer care number of his DTH service provider to change the plan and add Kannada channels. On Google, the victim came across a number which he dialled and the person who answered the call claimed to be from the said DTH firm.
The contractor subsequently received calls from three different numbers but from the same man who had claimed to be the DTH staffer. The caller told the contractor that to change the plan, he'd have to make a Rs 5 top-up payment.
The contractor told police that on January 16, he got a link and was told he had to pay the money through the same to activate the new plan. But the link did not work. After a few minutes, the person called him again and said he would send a new link on WhatsApp. About 15 minutes later, the fraudster sent him the fresh link.
Once the link was sent, the caller directed the contractor to click on it and add his UPI ID at the designated space. The contractor followed the instructions but no money was deducted from the account. However, later at night, Re 1 was deducted first and, subsequently, over Rs 99,000 was withdrawn in two different transactions.
The contractor said police told him that they would talk to the bank where his money had been moved to find out if it could be recovered through reverse transaction. When TOI called the same number, it said the caller's "account balance is low to make this call".