Cyber-crime in Kolar: Retd Armyman, woman duped of 3L

Bhopal: Two separate cases of cyber fraud involving more than Rs 3 lakh were reported in Kolar area, where fraudsters targeted an 81-year-old retired Army personnel and a woman using fake emergency and electricity disconnection scams.In the first case, an 81-year-old retired serviceman from Sai Hills Colony lost Rs 1.5 lakh after a fraudster posed as a friend of his former Army officer. According to police, Arun Kumar Singh Parmar received a call around 11 pm on May 14 from a man identifying himself as “Gulshan”. The caller claimed that his cousin urgently required a heart stent surgery and asked Parmar to immediately transfer Rs 1.5 lakh to the account of a doctor at a hospital.Trusting the caller, Parmar transferred the amount in three transactions from his bank accounts. Later, he realised he had been duped when the caller stopped answering his phone calls. A zero FIR was initially registered before the case diary was transferred to Kolar police for further investigation.In another incident, Bhavna Saini, 27, a resident of Amra Vihar in Nayapura, Kolar, was cheated of Rs 1.55 lakh after fraudsters threatened to disconnect her electricity supply over an allegedly unpaid bill.Police said Bhavna first received a message and later a call from a man identifying himself as Deepak Agrawal, who claimed her electricity consumer ID was not updated. He then sent her a mobile application named “MPEB Update” and asked her to download it. Soon after installing the app, the fraudsters allegedly hacked her mobile phone and siphoned off Rs 1,55,340 from her SBI account through net banking transactions.Kolar police have registered cases in both matters and started investigations.