Jio employee Vikas Kumar has become the latest victim of online fraud.

Even though technology has made our lives easier but it has come with its share of perils. Nowadays there has been a surge in the number of online financial scams as victims have to incur huge losses on account of it. Many people don’t come forward to file complaint as they are unaware about whom to approach. Jio employee Vikas Kumar has become the latest victim of online fraud. His SBI card was cloned and used by juvenile to withdraw a sum of Rs 2,000 but the amount was withdrawn in smaller denominations of Rs 100. The fraud came to light when he received several notifications from bank in real time pertaining to multiple transactions of generating one time passwords and transactions.

When AV spoke to Vikas Kumar he said, “Some person is still trying to use my card even though there is no balance available in it. According to me some juvenile is involved in this fraud.” Vikas also posted comments on facebook addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he has become a victim of cashless economy and online fraud. He has urged the PM to take this matter seriously. He nonetheless has not filed any police complaint due to minimal amount which has already been siphoned off from his account. “During online transaction one time password is needed to complete the transaction and it is sent on the card holder’s registered mobile number, however the hacker had got access to these multiple one time passwords. Such frauds cannot happen until the bank’s system and data are not compromised which in his case happens to be State Bank of India. The hacker carried out online transactions through www.helpchat.in (Tapzo App) which provides online gateways for multiple services like Uber, Ola, Zomato, Telecom recharges, Mobikwik, Nearbuy etc,” added Vikas.

There are several reported and unreported cases of online fraud. Angelov, who arrived in India on a tourist visa, has been remanded into police custody till April 18. Police have seized a laptop, three mobile phones, three hard disks, eight plastic cards, a pen drive and Rs 59,900 cash from him. He has been booked under sections 419, 420 of the IPC and Information Technology Act. The fraud came to notice after bank officials informed police that on April 1 a credit card had been retained by their ATM machine at Juhu. On scanning the footage of the CCTV installed inside the kiosk, the bank found out that a foreign national had tried to insert that card thrice. The cyber police arrested a 45-year-old Bulgarian national who tried to withdraw money from a Juhu ATM using a cloned credit card. The police said the accused, Milcho Gashev Angelov, is part of a gang that siphons off cash from ATM machines using cloned credit cards. This is not the first time that a foreign national has been arrested in a skimming racket. In 2015, 37 persons, including 14 cops, were duped by a Bulgarian gang in a skimming racket at an ATM outside the police headquarters at Crawford Market.

Akhilesh Singh, deputy commissioner (cyber police) said, “The accused may have entered the wrong password thrice and that is why the ATM machine must have retained the card,”. “We are investigating how many people are involved in this fraud and till now how many accounts have been comprised,” he further stated.

Angelov had come to Mumbai a month ago and was staying in a rented apartment in Andheri (east). The gang’s modus operandi is to steal credit/debit card data using skimming machines, clone them and later use them to siphon off money, said police.

The accused used to clone cards and then withdraw money. “He was living a lavish life. He paid Rs 1.5 lakh as rent for the house. Angelov is currently in police custody till April 17. He has been booked for data theft, impersonation under Section 66C, 66D of Information Technology Act. The police is now searching for a translator to record his statement. Angelov is on an year-long tourist visa to India.