Chandigarh lawyer duped of Rs 1 lakh on pretext of booking doctor's appointment

Chandigarh: A Chandigarh-based lawyer who was looking for a doctor on the internet was duped of Rs 1 lakh by a cyber fraudster pretending to be a receptionist at a doctor's clinic. 

The cyber-crime police registered a case against an unknown person under cheating and criminal conspiracy on Friday. However, they haven't made any arrests so far. 

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The complaint was filed by Sukhpreet Kaur who googled the phone number of Dr Mamta in Sector 38, Chandigarh on May 16. In her complaint, she stated, "I got her contact information from a page of JustDial and called the phone number, but the calls went unanswered. After a few minutes, I received a call from someone claiming to be the doctor’s receptionist. He asked me to get an appointment fixed by paying ₹5 through online payment, for which he sent a link via WhatsApp." 

However, the lawyer received a message from Punjab National Bank on her phone the next day, notifying the withdrawal of Rs 1 lakh from her bank account. She said that she had not shared any OTP with the caller, as per a media report in the Hindustan Times. 

Further, her complaint noted, "Since I was in Chandigarh and my bank account is in the Nawanshahr branch, my brother met the bank manager, Sanjeev Kumar. My brother, who is a beneficiary of my account, requested the manager to block the transaction, but he turned down the request, stating that the account holder needs to visit the branch herself and raise the issue." The advocate works at the Punjab and Haryana high court. 

Meanwhile, in another news from Chandigarh, the Medical Dialogues team had last reported about a protest led by the nursing students of the National Institute of Nursing Education (NINE), under PGI Chandigarh against the administration's failure to provide employment to their students despite fulfilling the bond agreement. 

Also Read:Over 450 nursing students stage protest over non-recruitment by PGI Chandigarh