NIC director falls prey to cyber fraud, loses Rs 1 lakh

A senior technical director of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) became a victim to a cyber fraud losing Rs 1 lakh after a conman managed to obtain his bank credentials on the pretext of upgrading his bank account.

R Venkatesh, 56, has lodged a complaint with the city cyber crime police. In his complaint, Venkatesh said he got a call last Tuesday from a man claiming to be an executive of the bank and said his bank account needs to be upgraded.

Venkatesh shared OTP and other bank account details.

However, within minutes, he received a transaction alert that Rs 1 lakh was transferred from his account through UPI (Unified Payments Interface — an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India facilitating inter-bank transactions).

Venkatesh tried to call the person, but his phone was switched off following which he approached the cyber crime police.

It might be recalled that Internal Security Division (ISD) chief Ashit Mohan Prasad had fallen prey to online fraudsters who made away with his Rs 2 lakh after taking debit card details from him a few days ago.