Madhya Pradesh woman falls for a new SBI credit card scam, loses Rs 23,000 from bank account

By Divya BhatiEvery day, new cases of cyber scams are being reported to the Cyber Cell. People are losing lakhs to unknown scammers who are leveraging developing technology and the lack of awareness among people. Literally, no one is safe from these cyber hawks. Despite all the awareness and familiarity with viral scams, people still tend to fall into their traps. And when we say no one is safe, we mean it – a recent case of cyber scam even proves it further as this time one cyber scammer managed to dupe a police constable.

In a recently reported case of a cyber scam, a female police constable from Madhya Pradesh lost Rs 23,000 in a credit card scam. According to The Free Press Journal, the constable, named Lakshmi Tomar who is posted in the office of the superintendent of police, was tricked by a scammer on the pretext of increasing the limit of her credit card.

Scammer shared an offer to increase limit of credit card

The report reveals that Tomar received a call on her phone from an unknown man who identified himself as an officer of a credit company. He offered Tomar a plan through which she could increase the limit of her SBI credit card. The caller spoke with Tomar so professionally that she fell for the offer and asked him to share the process to increase the limit of her credit card.

Scammer asked for details for further process

The scammer then asked Tomar to share some details, such as her ID details and bank account information, to start the process. Tomar shared all her details and within a few minutes received a message informing her about an unauthorised transaction for Rs 23,000 from her bank.

Block bank account and report to cyber cell

Tomar immediately called the scammer back on the number from which she had earlier received the call, but no one answered. Realising she had fallen for a cyber fraud, Tomar lodged a complaint at the cyber cell and had her bank account blocked.

Notably, being a police constable herself, Tomar was cautious about cyber frauds. Yet when she came across a scammer, she was unable to distinguish if she had received a call from a real credit office or a fake one.

Do not fall for spam calls

The cases related to KYC, electricity bill and even credit cards are not new. Thousands of people receive calls related to credit card schemes everyday. While some ignore, others just don’t pick up these scam calls. However, some end up in the trap and lose money. Here I want to emphasise that not all calls related to credit cards are fake and sometimes banks do make people aware about schemes and so on. However, through these calls, banks just inform their customers and do not ask for any personal details or start the process on phone or online.

It is also to be noted that, earlier, these scammers used to talk in not so good hindi or english, but now even they have got some skills. They will talk to people in such a promising way that it often gets difficult for anyone to realise that they are talking to a scammer. To avoid falling for such callers, it’s better not to entertain them much and, if you are really into some scheme, go to your bank or their official website or app and ask the real bank executive directly for the details.