College Principal Duped Of Over Rs 8 Lakh By Cyber Frauds In Rourkela

Rourkela: In yet another cyber fraud, principal of a college in Odisha’s Rourkela city was duped of more than Rs 8 lakh from his bank account.

According to sources,  the victim, Paresh Pradhan, principal of Rourkela Municipal College (RMC), on Wednesday went to State Bank of India (SBI), where he has an account, to activate his YONO account, an integrated digital banking platform of SBI, as it was disabled a few days back.

After getting his work done, he returned home in the evening when he received an SMS on his mobile phone stating that his YONO account would be deactivated for want of KYC verification. The message had a link in it.

Without verifying the authenticity of the SMS or checking with the SBI, Pradhan clicked on the link and a YONO app appeared on his mobile phone. He opened it with his login and password, provided his email address and completed the captcha verification.

Soon after, an OTP appeared for several times and a call from an unknown number repeatedly. At the same time, he received an SMS message that Rs 24,000 had been debited from his SBI account. Since the principal had not withdrawn the amount, he got alarmed and disconnected the suspicious link. When he checked his account details, he found that Rs 8,84,996 had been withdrawn from his account through four transactions.

Pradhan lodged a complaint with the Rourkela Cyber Crime police and SBI authorities in this regard on Thursday. The verification of illegal withdrawal revealed that Rs 24,000 was transferred to an account of ICICI Bank in Jharkhand, while Rs 8,60,996 was transferred to three credit cards of ICICI.

Cyber police has launched an investigation to trace the money and the cyber frauds, while the SBI authorities are taking steps on the basis of Pradhan’s complaint.

It may be noted that a medical student, who had returned from Ukraine, fell victim to cyber fraud in Bhubaneswar as he was duped of Rs 2,500 in April.

The Crime Branch (CB) had arrested three cyber criminals, including the main accused Dushmanta Sahu, from Dhenkanal and seized a whopping 19,641 SIM cards last month.

Also Read: [Watch] 3 Arrested With Over 19K Pre-Activated SIM Cards In Odisha; Check The Gang’s Modus Operandi