A former Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was allegedly cheated by a gang that siphoned off ₹10 lakh from his bank account through multiple fraudulent transactions.
While the retired official claimed to have neither authorised the addition of any new payee nor shared any One Time Password (OTP) to approve the transactions, he remembers to have answered some questions when one of the suspects called him to update his KYC records to keep his BSNL mobile number active.
Police sources said T.S. Srinivasan, 85, a retired officer of the Indian Revenue Service, lodged a complaint with the Kilpauk police that on July 1, he received an SMS asking him to call a mobile phone number within 24 hours to avoid deactivation of his BSNL SIM card.
Mr. Srinivasan, a resident of Chetpet, called the number but there was no response. The next morning, he received a call from one Manikumar claiming to be from BSNL’s Anna Nagar office. After posing some questions, the suspect asked the octogenarian to pay ₹10 for testing and updating the data.
While the complainant was not sure whether he shared any OTP, the caller confirmed to him that the KYC was updated and disconnected the call. A few hours later, he received texts on his phone notifying him of the transfer of ₹10 lakh from his State Bank of India account to various other bank accounts.
After requesting the bank authorities to block his account, Mr. Srinivasan lodged a complaint with the police. Even later, he received a call and some text messages from different numbers asking him to update his KYC records.
Mr. Srinivasan shared the contact details of the suspects with the police and sought action.
M.R. Sivaraman, former Union Revenue Secretary and friend of Mr. Srinivasan, who reached out to the Manager, SBI, Mylapore Branch, was able to detect that the funds drawn fraudulently were transferred to the bank accounts in Kolkata, Surat and Tiruvannamalai. “Steps have been taken to stop payment from those accounts,” Mr. Sivaraman said.
