Senior KMC official tries to link Aadhaar with e-wallet, duped

KOLKATA: A chief manager of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) was duped of Rs 50,000 by cyber frauds on Monday when he tried to link his Aadhaar with a popular digital payment platform, which allows one to transfer cash to the integrated e-wallet via online banking, debit and credit cards.

The victim,

Utpal Kumar Chowdhury

, lodged an FIR with the Survey Park police on Tuesday. The bank fraud section of detective department is likely to take up the investigation.

According to the complaint, Chowdhury consulted the website of the digital platform on how to do the linking. Accordingly, he came across a contact number on that website and he called on it twice. The number was busy initially but after sometime, he received a call from the same number. The caller on the other end, though, did not stop after receiving Chowdhury’s Aadhaar number. He also asked for the victim’s debit card details.

Within minutes after the call, Rs 10,000 was debited from Chowdhury’s account. But, the money came back to his account within half an hour while he was trying to contact his bank.

In a while, he lost Rs 50,000 to various purchases made from his card at Gurugram in Haryana.

Talking to TOI, Chowdhury alleged that he had been duped by two famous organizations. “I have become a victim of cyber fraud. But did I do any crime by trusting a foolproof internet system. I want the police to unmask the persons behind such organized cyber crime,” he said.

“Chowdhury told us that the caller introduced himself as Vijay Kumar, an “employee” of the digital platform. After the incident, Chowdhury again called Kumar, who claimed he hadn’t done anything wrong as thousands of other users had done the linking through a similar process. We have lodged an FIR and are further investigating,” said a senior officer.

Police said they were “surprised” that the official passed on the OTP and CVV number despite “repeated warnings”. I have asked for the victim’s CDR (call details record). He may have been forced to use his mobile number as he was directed to a fake website,” said a senior investigator from Survey Park police.

Earlier, the same platform had launched an electronic, Aadhaarbased client authentication system to upgrade its digital wallet customers to account holders of its upcoming e-bank and enable them to carry out transactions exceeding Rs 10,000 per month. The electronic know-your-customer system known as e-KYC, which will be offered through Aadhaar, is part of an initiative called India Stack. “We have to ascertain why the victim didn’t avail the same,” said an officer.