The latest victim is a 59-year-old businessman who lost Rs 33,000. (Representational Image) The latest victim is a 59-year-old businessman who lost Rs 33,000. (Representational Image)

At least eight people in Dombivali area have lost money in the past few months to fraudulent callers who reportedly pretended to be calling as representatives of their banks. The callers took their debit card details as well as Aadhaar numbers claiming their cards would be otherwise blocked, and then made fraudulent transactions. In all, the police said, the eight persons lost a total of Rs 2.42 lakh over the past few months.

The latest victim is a 59-year-old businessman who lost Rs 33,000.

Senior inspector of Dombivali police station, Vijaysingh Pawar, said the latest instance of this fraud took place on Friday, when one Satyanarayan Kulkarni lost money after he received a call from a woman claiming to be calling from the bank where he held an account. “She told him to give details of his Aadhaar card and debit card so that she could activate his debit card. As the caller had some details of the account, Kulkarni provided his debit card details that were used to carry out the fraudulent transactions,” Pawar said.

An officer said the accused also took the complainant’s Aadhaar card details. “Normally, to sound genuine, they ask for additional details of the complainant. This time, they sought the Aadhaar card details. This is a dangerous trend since these details could also be misused by the accused.”

Apart from this case, the Dombivali police received complaints from seven others residing in the area that callers sought card details from them and carried out fraudulent transactions. “In all, the sum people have lost adds up to Rs 2.40 lakh. The accused had used card details to make fraudulent transactions. We have clubbed all the cases in one FIR and suspect they (calls) have been made from the same place,” an officer added.

While initially, fraudulent calls were on the rise in Mumbai, in the past few months, residents of areas such as Thane and Navi Mumbai too have been receiving many such calls.

The police have so far not been able to solve these cases.

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