Fastag recharge goes wrong, motorist loses ` 99,997

Udupi: Francis Pius Furtado an unsuspecting motorist lost Rs. 99,997 during a Fastag recharge in Brahmavar near here. He had tried to recharge his Fastag account by calling a helpline number available on the Net and some scamster manning the fake helpline got the better of him and swindled a heavy amount from him. According to a complaint he lodged with the CEN police station in Udupi the incident happened near Hejmady toll plaza in Udupi district on January 29.

Francis Pius was going from Brahmavara to Mangaluru in his four wheeler and as he was about to cross the toll plaza in Hejamady on January 29 he got to understand that his fastag balance was low. He had to recharge it. As he was in a hurry, he tried to do it by calling the 'helpline' number available on the Net. When he searched for the helpline number in the search engine on the Net, he got a mobile helpline number.

The person speaking from the other end introduced himself as a representative of Paytm Fastag and assured to 'help' him. The person on the other side told Francis that he will receive one time password (OTP) and reveal the same to him. As Francis followed his words, Rs 49,000 got deducted from his bank account. As four more transactions took place following that transaction, amounts of Rs 19,999, Rs 19,998, Rs 9,999 and Rs 1,000 got deducted. In all, Francis lost Rs 99,997. Police said that the complainant ended up calling a fake number as he searched for a customer care number on the internet.

Police sources added that Francis was asked to download a suspicious mobile APP and money got deducted. Udupi CEN police station inspector Manjunath told that investigation is on to find out to which bank account the money of the complainant has got transferred. Based on that information, the customer details (KYC details) available with the bank will be sought and the culprits will be traced, he said. A case was registered at Udupi CEN police station under sections- 66 (C), 66 (D) of IT Act.