Now phone thieves, cyber cons join hands to clean out victim's bank a/cs

Time of India

3 hours ago

Dhanbad: If your mobile phone is lost or stolen, you might initially take it casually thinking the device was ageing and you need to buy a new one, or at most, mourn its loss. However, a far bigger risk could be lurking — you could lose access to your social media accounts, get locked out of your bank accounts, your funds could be cleaned out and the culprits could even blackmail you or target you with
identity theft
.
This is because your phone is a device where you store everything about yourself, right from your birth certificate to Aadhaar cards, PAN cards to bank details and from intimate photos and videos to other personal details.
In an alarming new trend, mobile phone thieves have joined hands with cybercriminals in Dhanbad and once a mobile phone reached their hands, it didn't take long for them to hack into it and get hold of the personal details.
Currently, these criminals are targeting bank details to siphon off the money from the victims' accounts.
Recently, three such incidents have surfaced, highlighting the growing menace. A retired principal of Sindri College, Kamta Singh, lost his mobile phone while buying vegetables in a local market. "I searched for the phone for over an hour but in vain. I then complained with police and got the SIM card reissued.
But the next day, when I inserted the SIM into a new handset, I was shocked to see that Rs 1.25 lakh had been withdrawn from my bank account," a teary-eyed Singh rued.
In another case, Pappu Gupta, a contract driver with the Saraidhela police station, lost his phone while shopping at the Steel Gate Market. He acted swiftly after losing the phone and blocked the number and informed his bank. Yet, he was stunned to learn that over Rs 2 lakh had been fraudulently withdrawn through three separate transactions.
"The fraudsters also used my UPI credentials to make purchases," he lamented.
Similarly, Priyanka Rai, a private school teacher, lost her phone and she promptly blocked the SIM card. But even before she could complete the process, the cybercriminals had already drained Rs 10,000 from her account. "I had limited funds in my account, so the loss was comparatively smaller, but the experience was deeply disturbing," she said.
Saraidhela police station officer-in-charge Nutan Modi confirmed receiving a complaint from the retired principal Kamta Singh and said an FIR will be lodged once the necessary banking documents are provided to them. "We need the bank statement for further action," she said.
Meanwhile, cyber police DSP Sanjiv Kumar warned the public to be cautious, especially with phones used for banking. "Phones with UPI access are easy targets for cybercriminals. We are monitoring this emerging trend and urge citizens to stay alert," he said, adding that any phone loss should be promptly reported without wasting time.