Kozhikode: In a shocking and first of its kind cyber fraud case reported from Kerala state, a man has been duped of Rs 3.5 lakh while trying to cancel his ticket in the Vande Bharat train in Kozhikode district, officials said on Friday. It is learnt that the money has been looted from the savings bank and fixed deposit accounts of the victim after three secret code verifications and two OTP verifications.
A police official said that the scam took place after the ticket booked on the Vande Bharat train was cancelled by the victim. According to the official, the victim, a resident of Kozhikkode initiated the cancellation process through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the authorized site of Indian Railways.
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It is learnt that when the man tried to browse the website on the mobile phone, a replica website appeared. The victim said that on requesting for the ticket cancellation on the purported IRCTC website, he received a message claiming that the ticket had been canceled and the refund amount has been returned to the account.
However, to his utter shock, when he checked the account, he saw that Rs 50,000 had been withdrawn from his account instead of the refund. Another Rs 50,000 was withdrawn within seconds, he said adding a total of Rs 3.5 lakh were deducted from his account in the suspected cyber fraud. The victim immediately went to the bank and complained to the manager when he checked the account and found that three and a half lakhs of fixed deposit was lost.
The victim is a retired government employee from technical department. He is working abroad presently and was on leave. Following a complaint by the victim in this regard, Cyber police has registered a case and started investigation. Earlier this year, another Kozhikode native Radhakrishnan had lost Rs 40,000 through deep fake video call using artificial intelligence.
