Online fraudsters use flower vendor's wife's account for

Shocked at finding Rs 30 crore credited in his wife's zero bank account, a flower vendor has approached police and an inquiry has revealed that unidentified online fraudsters have done hundreds of illegal transactions and misused it.

Syed Malik Burhan, the flower vendor from Channapatna town in Ramanagar district of Karnataka, had claimed he found the money credited in the account.

However, the SBI clarified on Wednesday there has been no credit of Rs 30 crore as assumed by the customer or her husband.

Instead there are a few suspicious transactions amounting to Rs 30 to 40 lakh over a period of three months in the Jan Dhan account, which was opened in 2015, it said.

 

There are several complaints pending in Cyber Crime Investigation cells of Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand for investigation of the account for fake identity and cheating/fraud, the bank said.

The account was freezed as per instructions from Inquiry Officer, Cyber Crime Cell, Chandigrah on November 15, 2019, to the Bank branch.

"Based on the OTP shared by the customer, unidentified online fraudsters have misused the account and have done hundreds of illegal transactions in the account," the SBI said in a statement.

Burhan, the customer's husband, has admitted that account details and the OTP has been shared following an anonymous call received by him, according to the bank.

"Since the account details and OTP has been shared by the customer, there is no direct or indirect involvement of the Branch or Bank in the fraud.

Now, the matter is under investigation by our State Police also," the bank said.

Burhan said bank officials came, asking him how the money came to his wife's account.

Burhan recalled that he had purchased a saree through an online portal following which he received a call seeking hisbank details which, he was told, were needed as he had won acar.

"Since then, we are running from pillar to post to find how the money came to our account. We had only Rs 60 but suddenly such a huge amount came, which we are unable to understand," Burhan said.

Based on his complaint, the Channapatna town police registered a forgery and impersonation case on January 9.

According to police, there were many financialtransactions, which Burhan may be unaware of.

"We are trying to find what these transactions mean.We will arrest whoever is behind it," a police officer said.

The SBI requested its customers not to share account details or OTP or password to anybody and become prey for online fraudsters, adding, it has been educating its customers by sending SMS regularly to avert such frauds.