Four residents, including a 67-year-old man and a 63-year-old retired engineer, allegedly lost more than ₹10 lakh in separate cyber-fraud incidents in which FIRs were registered on Friday and Saturday.
In the latest case, a 24-year-old woman from Sector 20 alleged that ₹5 lakh was fraudulently withdrawn from her mother’s HDFC bank and IDFC first bank accounts between August 27 and 28.
According to the complaint, the transactions included ₹2 lakh, ₹2 lakh and ₹32,489 from the HDFC account and four transactions totalling ₹22,999 from the IDFC First Bank account. The woman told police that her mother had neither shared any one-time password (OTP) nor clicked any suspicious link. She subsequently reported the matter to the cyber helpline 1930.
In another case, a 67-year-old doctor from Sector 21 resident allegedly lost ₹3 lakh after unauthorised transactions were debited from his HDFC Bank account on September 22.
According to the complaint, the victim received messages showing withdrawals of ₹2 lakh and ₹1 lakh while he was at Alchemist Hospital, Sector 21. He contacted the bank, which blocked his accounts, UPI ID and cards, and also reported the matter to cyber police. Police said he later found that ₹3 lakh had been withdrawn from his bank.
A 63-year-old retired engineer from Kalka was allegedly duped of ₹2 lakh after responding to Facebook advertisements for dry fruits items. According to the complaint, the victim had contacted the sellers on WhatsApp and received product catalogues, invoices and company documents before placing orders. He allegedly made multiple payments, including ₹21,000, ₹28,000, ₹17,000 and ₹77,000, and was later asked for another ₹3,000 on the pretext of fuel expenses for a delivery vehicle. The sellers allegedly stopped responding after receiving the payments.
In the fourth case, a 25-year-old Surajpur resident allegedly lost ₹1 lakh after clicking an e-challan link received on WhatsApp on September 18. The victim told police that his phone was subsequently compromised. He found debits of ₹38,000, ₹30,000 and ₹1 on September 18, followed by a ₹42,001 UPI transaction the next day.
Cyber crime police registered separate FIRs against unknown accused in all four cases under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Investigation is underway.