Mumbai woman tries to order milk online, ends up losing Rs 18.5 lakh

Mumbai: A 71-year-old woman from Mumbai allegedly lost Rs 18.5 lakh from her bank accounts while attempting to order a litre of milk online, police said on Saturday.

The woman, a resident of Wadala, was allegedly duped of her entire bank savings in two days when she attempted to order milk from an online delivery app earlier this month, an official said.

On August 4, the woman received a call from a man identifying himself as Deepak, an executive from the milk company, who sent a link to her mobile phone number asking her to furnish her details to order milk, the official said.

He said the woman was instructed to click on the link without disconnecting the call and follow further instructions. As the call went on for more than an hour, the complainant got bored and decided to hang up.

The official said that the next day, the complainant received a phone call from the same accused, who gathered more details from her.

During a routine bank visit in the following days, the complainant discovered that Rs 1.7 lakh had been siphoned off from one of her accounts, and on checking further, she found that her other two bank accounts had also been emptied.

According to the police, the complainant lost Rs 18.5 lakh as all three bank accounts were emptied.

The accused allegedly managed to hack into the complainant's phone after she clicked on the link he sent to her mobile phone.

Based on a complaint, the police registered a case earlier this week, and a probe is underway, the official said.