Scams are running rampant in India, and you must safeguard yourself.
A retired 83-year-old man lost his Rs 2.5 lakh in savings to fraudsters pretending to be bank employees doing KYC verification. Here are the details.
What if you received a call from your local bank branch to verify your KYC (know your customer) details but moments later, you end up losing your entire savings in your bank? Yes, this is exactly what happened to an 83-year-old retired government personnel based out of Kolkata, West Bengal.
This, of course, is a popular scam, and the said individual, S.P. Sinha, lost his Rs 2.5 lakh in savings to fraudsters pretending to be bank employees.
As reported by Metro, the man visited his bank branch for all his transactional needs, but one day he received a call from his bank, and to earn trust, they went into the details by informing Sinha that they were calling from the table number 3 of the bank where the victim had his pension account.
Now, as luck would have it, Sinha had previously visited table number 3 for his work, and hence got convinced that the caller was genuine and wanted to rightly verify his KYC details. As a result, the man ended up following the scammers’ directions.
“On November 11, I received a call in the afternoon. The man said he was calling from the bank (pension account),” Sinha said.
He further added, “He also mentioned my account number. When I said the bank was closed that day, he said only the ‘verification’ section was open and that I needed to update my KYC.”
Later, due to him not being tech-friendly, Sinha handed over the device to his 11-year-old grandson, and then moments later, he realized that his account had been debited for Rs 2,57,650. Moreover, he also lost access to his FDs and other investments.
This incident serves as a clear indication of negligence. It’s important to note that banks do not conduct transactions over phone calls. For updating your KYC data, visit your bank’s official website or go to the branch for assistance. As a general rule, always reject suspicious requests received through calls or messages.
