Elderly Man Duped Of $13,000 By Fraudster Under Pretext Of Verifying SIM Card

A 71-year-old man in India was allegedly duped of about $13,000 by a fraudster, who contacted the former under the pretext of verifying his SIM card.

The elderly man, who was a resident of the city of Pune in the western state of Maharashtra, received a call from the suspect posing as an employee of a mobile service provider.

The accused told the old man his phone number would no longer be functional if it was not immediately verified. He allegedly convinced the old man he needed to verify his SIM card for prolonged services, which would require him to fulfill an online form, Latestly reported.

The unsuspecting elderly man gave certain private and confidential information regarding him to the accused, which included his bank account details too. The victim also gave an OTP he had received on his mobile phone to the accused. Following this, the transaction worth over INR 10,71,269 ($13, 296) was made from the victim's bank account.

The victim then approached the cops, and a case has been filed against the accused under relevant sections of the IPC (Indian Penal Code), according to Hindustan Times. The suspect and the accused have not been identified.

In a similar case, a senior citizen in Pune was arrested for allegedly duping an elderly man of INR 10.29 lakh ($13,668) after promising him good returns on his investment. The suspect was identified as Pandurang Solakar of Ambegaon Badruk. The victim, Nagesh Sdashiv Khambekar, approached the cops after the fraud. Solkar had apparently become acquainted with Khambekar in 2006 and told him that he had started a co-operative credit society. The former also told Khambekar the credit society was government-recognized and convinced him to invest his money in it, following which the latter had invested $13,668.7 in the form of fixed and recurring deposits.

In another such incident in September, a woman in the city of Pune was duped of over $13,000 by a fraudster claiming to be working with a telecom company. The fraudster allegedly convinced the victim's daughter into sharing credit and debit card details. The woman had earlier received a message saying her SIM card will be blocked for the next 24 hours because the validity had expired. The woman then forwarded the message to her daughter who then called on the provided number, which belonged to the fraudster.