BARC officer loses ₹2.8L to cybercriminals

Navi Mumbai: A 59-year-old scientific officer at BARC residing in New Panvel has lost Rs 2.8 lakh to a cybercriminal couple after he shared the OTP.
In an FIR filed on February 26 at around 11am, the complainant received a call from one Riya Sharma claiming to be a representative of credit card customer care, and told him that his credit card will expire soon and asked for his personal details for issuing him a new credit card.The complainant initially refused to share the details but gave in after the woman repeatedly called him to convince she was genuinely a bank staffer. Once the complainant agreed, she transferred the call to her aide Dinesh Mishra, who claimed he was the bank manager.
As Mishra had the complainant’s name, date of birth and credit card number, the complainant believed it was a genuine call and confirmed his personal details. At around 12.30pm, the complainant received an OTP which he shared with Mishra for issuing him “a new credit card”. Soon after that, he received bank text alerts of two transactions of Rs 95,000 each and six of Rs 15,159 each being carried out.
— George Mendonca