Young woman loses Rs 25,000 in novel online fraud

A 27-year old woman who had appeared for the Mahavitaran examination earlier this year fell prey to an online fraud when an unknown person, on the pretext of helping her, cheated her of Rs 25,000.

Complainant Chetana Naik (27), a resident of Dahisar, appeared for an exam of Mahavitaran earlier this year for the post of Human Resources (HR) manager. A freelance HR professional, Ms Naik received an email on May 29, stating that an oral interview would soon be held and to attend the interview she needs to carry the auto-generated online application form, which was used at the time of filing the application for the exam. Ms Naik, who had not received the form at that time, contacted the helpline number of Mahavitaran but was told the form is mandatory. On May 30, she came to know several similarly affected people were putting up their complaints on the website of the National Consumer Complaint Board. Ms Naik also put up her complaint on the site.

According to Ms Naik, she received a phone call immediately after putting up her details, in which a person posing as a member of the website promised to give her the form on Tuesday, May 31 via email. He asked for Rs 100 as charge for the same. To pay the money, Ms Naik used her ATM card and via one time auto generated password paid Rs 100 to the caller. Later on Tuesday, she received a SMS saying that her 3D secure pin had been created. A shocked Ms Naik called her bank and said that she never applied for such pin. When she visited an ATM, she realised she had only Rs 425 in her account and almost Rs 25,000 had been withdrawn.

On June 1, Ms Naik received text messages from some online shopping portals that her money had been transferred in their accounts for purchases.