Odisha Doctor duped of Rs 3 lakh on pretext of updating PAN card

Gajapati: In yet another case of cyber fraud reported from Odisha, a government doctor of the R Udaygiri community health centre (CHC) in the Gajapati district recently lost Rs 3 lakh after he was cheated to go to an unknown fraudulent link resembling the app of a nationalised bank.  

The doctor had registered a complaint with the Cyber and Economic Offences police station in Berhampur on Tuesday. The fraudulent app resembled YONO, a State Bank of India-based application. 

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The doctor, who is from Ayodhya Nagar in Berhampur, had received a message on his phone two days back asking him to update his PAN in the app. He was asked to click a link and was warned of not being able to use the application in the future if he failed to click the link and update. 

Assuming the bank had sent him the message, the doctor provided his user ID and password on the page and subsequently received an OTP. He entered the OTP on the application page. 

However, he immediately received a message that Rs 2.99 lakh and Rs 24,987 was withdrawn from his account in succession, reports The New Indian Express. Police stated that the investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, the cyber police have informed that this is the third reported case of cyber fraud that took place in the city within the past week. 

A similar cyber fraud case was earlier reported by the Medical Dialogues team from Odisha's Bhubaneshwar, where a retired Indian Air Force (IAF) doctor had been duped of Rs 1.46 lakh by cyber fraudsters who cheated him on the pretext of electricity bill payment. The doctor had received a message stating that his electricity bill was pending and was warned that the electrical connection would be permanently cut if the bill is not paid on time. As soon as the doctor shared the OTP after pressing a link sent by the accused, an amount of Rs 1.46 lakh was debited from his account in two installments. 

Also Read:Odisha: Retired IAF Doctor duped of Rs 1.46 lakh on pretext of electricity bill payment