81 Mumbai Residents Lose A Combined Rs. 1 Crore In Bank KYC And PAN Scam Over 16 Days

81 Mumbai residents have lost a combined Rs. 1 crore over the course of the last 16 days. The scamsters had posed as bank officials and claimed that the victims’ savings accounts would either be blocked or suspended if their PAN Card or KYC was not immediately updated.

This threat created a lot of panic and made the victims rush to click on the fraudulent links to update their PAN Card or KYC.

The victims were then duped of a major chunk of their money which was apparently safe in their savings account.

Mumbaikars Scammed

A plethora of people have been scammed due to this orchestrated panic created by the fraudsters. The victims had wanted to secure their savings accounts and their money but ended up losing their hard-earned wealth. 

MS Gosavi, a 40-year-old employee at a private firm was the 81st victim to have been cheated out of Rs. 4.99 lahks in this scam. A senior citizen couple from Mahim lost Rs. 2 lahks from their accounts.

Actor Shweta Menon and actor-politician Nagma were also scammed. A second-year college student from Goregaon was left with just Rs. 57 in her bank account. She said that she had acted in panic when she received a message stating that her account had been blocked and thus lost all her money.

Read More: Man Ends Up Paying ₹29 Lakhs For An iPhone While Buying From Instagram, Here’s How To Protect Yourself

Official Repercussions

81 FIRs have been filed across 35 police stations in Mumbai and five cyber police stations. The Cyber Crime Unit of the city has taken 5 cases to make an umbrella case in the quest to achieve a faster breakthrough. The cases had been shifted to the Cyber Crime Unit because there was a huge spike in fraudulent activity in a short span of time.

The Cyber police have asked the banks to be on the lookout for a data breach in their systems.

Dr. Balsing Rajput, DCP of Mumbai Cyber Crime said, “The team has found the module of the organized crime syndicate involved in the fraud. It is too early to disclose their details.”

He also added that people should keep in mind that no banks, financial institutions, or service providers warn about the suspension of bank accounts.

Citizens Worry

The victims of the fraud are worried that they might not get their money back. Dispute forms have been filled out with the respective banks and the cases are under scrutiny but they are worried that if the banks find out that a customer has made a mistake, the chances of receiving the money are bleak.

Have you ever been scammed? How did you deal with the situation? Let us know in the comment section.

Disclaimer: This article is fact-checked.

Image Credits: Google Images

Sources: The Times of India, Live Mint

Find the blogger: Pragya Damani

This post is tagged under: Mumbai residents, bank scam, PAN, KYC, KYC scam, panic, FIR, police, cyber crime, cyber police

Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.

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