Surat: A woman from Sarthana area has been cheated of Rs 44,000 by a cybercrook who posed as an LIC official. According to the complaint, Manisha Virani (26) runs a beauty parlour at her home in Sarthana area. She lives with her father and holds an account with the Varachha CoOp Bank.
On May 6, she got a call from a person who told her that he was calling from LIC as her father was eligible to get Rs 13,000 for LIC policy. He told her that he was transferring the amount to her account through UPI. After transferring the amount — in two transactions of Rs 10,000 and Rs 3,000, the crook told her that by mistake he had transferred Rs 30,000 in the second transaction.
The crook asked her to return the amount. He gave her another mobile number and asked her to return Rs 17,000 and Rs 10,000. When she completed the process, he told her that Rs 17,000 had not been returned and she needed to transfer it again.
So, without checking her account, Virani again transferred Rs 17,000. The crook again texted Virani another number and asked her to transfer the amount telling her he did not get it. As she got suspicious, she checked her account and found that Rs 44,000 had been debited from her account.
She called cyber helpline 1930 and filed a complaint. Based on that complaint, an FIR was filed by Sarthana police on May 30..
