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PUNE: The craving for a chilled beer and sparkling wine on a dry day left a 32-year software engineer poorer by Rs 50,778, as she lost the amount to a cyber crook.

The incident took place on Saturday which was one among the two dry days declared by the Pune district collector in view of the Ayodhya verdict.

The woman techie, who wanted to get the liquor delivered to her home, shared the one time password (OTP) twice with a man who posed as an employee of a wine shop over the phone, an officer from the Hinjewadi police said. “Within few minutes, Rs 50,778 was debited from her bank account through two transactions,” the officer said.

Milan Kurkute, sub-inspector of the Hinjewadi police, said, “The techie is from Kolkata and had come to Pune four days ago to meet her friends in Bavdhan . They wanted to have a party on the weekend, but realised that all the bars and liquor retail outlets were shut. They then decided to order the alcohol online.”

“The techie called on a number she had found online. The man, who received the call, told the techie that even though the shop was shut, she would get home delivery if she placed an online order for it,” Kurkute said.

To process the online payment, the man asked her to share the OTP that she had received for the transaction. “Within few seconds of sharing the OTP, Rs 31,777 was debited from her account,” Kurkute said.

“The woman contacted the person again and told him about it. He assured her that the amount would be credited to her account and told her she would get another OTP. The woman followed his directions to share the OTP and lost Rs 19,001 more,” Kurkute added. The woman approached the Hinjewadi police after she was unable to contact the man again.

