Karnataka DGP falls prey to scam his department always warns about

The accused have been identified as Deepan Kumar and Ashraf Ali. The cyber wing of the police which is attached to the Criminal Investigation Department had registered a case of fraud on the basis of a complaint lodged by DGP Om Prakash. According to police one of the accused persons called DGP Om Prakash on his phone and introduced himself as a member of the helpdesk of ICICI Bank’s credit card division. The caller told the police chief that he needed details of the card including the date of birth, validity and PIN as part of an online renewal process of the card.

Within minutes of being provided the details the accused used the credit card to withdraw Rs 10,000 and the DGP realized he had been cheated when he received an SMS message about the transaction. A police team tracked down the culprits on the basis of the number they had used to contact the DGP. The team managed to arrest Deepan Kumar on May 20 in Delhi and based on information provided by Kumar the other accused person Ali was arrested this week.

Police said that the accused persons were facing similar charges of fraud in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The Karnataka DGP fell prey to the fraudsters despite the cyber wing of the CID police frequently issuing warnings to the public about phishing scams in the light of several such complaints being registered. A retired judge had also fallen prey to similar scammers recently. The CID has re-issued its warning against divulging details of bank accounts to unknown callers.