An impostor lured the 49-year-old CA with a job offer and asked him to come to Thane for an interview. After meeting him, while one of the accused remained on a call with the CA, the other appeared at the given spot in person.
The accused on the call asked the CA to hand over the phone to the other accused under the pretext of discussing something important. The victim was called near Majiwada junction bridge in Thane, where someone met him. In the meantime, another person pretending to be a senior official called up the victim and spoke to him.
After some time, the so-called senior fellow asked the CA to hand over the phone to the person with him. Once the complainant gave them his mobile, the other man started talking over the phone and vanished with the mobile. The complainant then went to a Thane police station and lodged a complaint of mobile theft. On April 17, when the complainant went to an ATM, he learnt that Rs 2.84 lakh was deducted from his two bank accounts. This is when he lodged an FIR.
Investigators spoke to the nodal officer of a bank and managed to retrieve Rs 85,000. Money from another account had already been siphoned by the accused, said police. On April 27, the complainant again went to the police station and told cops that Rs 9.97 lakh was also transferred from his credit card. The money was transferred to a payment gateway valet.
D B Marg police said, “The Victim told us he had received a call in March and the caller told him he was speaking from the national academy of banking and finance. The caller asked the complainant to send Rs 100 via online mode for bio-data screening for a job. Later, on April 13, the complainant received another call and the caller asked him to come for an interview at a bank in Thane on April 16.”
Senior inspector Pradip Khude said, “The accused were trying to send the money to a catering service in Ghaziabad. We spoke to the payment gateway and stopped the transaction. This money is being returned to the complainant’s credit card. Our team is working on the case and further probe is on.”
