Man conned by fake banker in Bhatkal; loses Rs 50000

Bhatkallys News Bureau/ Ismail Zaorez Bhatkal 22 March 2018: A man who claimed he was an Banker of Syndicate bank is on the run after he allegedly robbed a 69 year old man from Bhatkal of Rs. 50,000 over the phone call on Wednesday. According to Abdullah (Name Changed as per the victim's request) he received a call on Wednesday morning 09: 00 am, and the person on the phone introduced himself to be a manager of Syndicate bank and was calling from Bengaluru head office of the bank. The caller asked the details of the ATM card of the victim in order to activate his account and card which was opened as recently as last week. "The tone in which he spoke to me was very professional, hence I did not doubt his call and gave him the information he asked including the CVV number of my card. I am not very aware of all this fraudulent activities as I am 69 years old and these are new methods of looting people, so I had no reason to doubt him" adds Abdullah. Once Abdullah gave him the details of the card, the caller then informed him that he will receive sms of OTP (One Time Password) and asked him to share the OTPs with him, which Abdullah did as he was asked to do. "I had no time to react or inform/ ask about the caller to my family as it was done very softly, I started to doubt the caller when he started to ask the details of my other bank accounts, and when I informed him of me having an account with AXIS bank, the caller asked me details of the AXIS bank cards, that's when I got doubt". He adds. "I rushed to the Syndicate bank Bhatkal branch and informed in detail about the call to the officials, who immediately checked my account and informed me of Rs. 50,000's transaction that was done in 11 parts. I was shocked to know about it, but the bank officials then said they are helpless and asked me to lodge a complaint at the police station". Abdullah alleges that he went to the police station but the officials did not pay heed to his complaint and tried allegedly convince him that filing complaint is of no use as the fraudsters use modern technologies and that police cannot track them. Abdullah then reportedly returned from police station after submitting a written complaint and waiting for over half an hour, when he was only made to sit and wait in the police station. When contacted Bhatkal Town PSI Bisvaraj, informed Bhatkallys.com that police did not derelict from its duty, it was just that the complainant came at a time when the duty shifts for the day was in progress, and before any officer could attend him he left without informing.