A woman from Lucknow lost Rs 40,000 while trying to get a refund of movie tickets that she booked from an online website, reported the Times Of India. On April 1, when every other Indian were pranking each other on “April Fools day”,  a hefty amount got debited from the woman’s bank account. Jhanvi shaken by her ordeal told the police that she had booked four tickets for an evening show from one of the famous online websites on March 30.

Afterwards, she cancelled the ticket in the stipulated time only to find that her money was not credited back to her account. Jhanvi who lives in Jankipuram, Lucknow said, “I cancelled the tickets within the stipulated period, However, the amount wasn’t credited to my account”. Unable to understand the situation, Jhanvi reached out to the customer care of the website. However, the customer care executive didn’t help her. Later, she received a call from a person who donned himself as an agent from the website’s customer care. The person asked for the debit card details to help her get the money back. Shockingly, by the time the conversation ended, she found that Rs 40,000 was debited from her account. “When the call ended I saw Rs 40,000 had been deducted from my account,” she told the police in her complaint. She further said that she tried to reach out to the number only to hear “switched off” tune from the other end.

Fake Bank Executive Dupes Man

Just a day after, that is on March 31, another fraud case was reported to Lucknow police’s cyber cell. On Sunday, a man claiming to be a bank executive cited the need to upgrade debit card and duped Rs 60,000 from a person. Raghuvansh Kumar Singh later said to the police, “After the call ended, I noticed that Rs 60,000 was deducted from my account for a transaction from an e-commerce website”.

Nand Lal, an inspector of the cyber cell, said that complaints have been registered in both the cases and a probe is underway.

This is an example of vishing fraud, in which money is debited from someone’s account entirely through a call. The Logical Indian requests its community members to not to disclose bank account details to any other person over a call or email address. We believe one should reach out to bank after receiving a call from a stranger asking for bank details just to crosscheck.

Also Read: Noida: Man With No Smartphone Loses Rs 6.8 Lakh Through UPI App Fraud