How a Pune pensioner filing taxes discovered her Rs 33 lakh deposits had vanished

In January, when the victim checked her mobile banking apps, all fixed deposits were completely intact. Between January 10 and 28, unidentified hackers allegedly breached her banking profiles, swapped her linked email IDs, and silently siphoned off Rs 33,31,555 across multiple online transactions.

On July 1, while submitting her income tax return (ITR), the victim checked her digital portfolio and found that all her fixed deposits had been liquidated.

The next morning, the retired teacher rushed to her respective SBI and ICICI bank branches. Bank executives reviewed her transaction statements and confirmed that the funds had been systematically broken down and withdrawn online over a two-week period in January.

The victim immediately informed the authorities that she had neither initiated the withdrawals nor received any SMS alerts or email notifications regarding the massive debits. Upon closer inspection of her profile details, she discovered that her registered email addresses had been modified without her knowledge or consent.

Police probe

Following a primary verification of her online complaint filed on July 7, the Kothrud police registered a criminal case against the unidentified cyber fraudsters. The police booked the scammers for cheating, cheating by personation, and common intention.

Investigators suspect the cyber criminals used advanced phishing or malware deployment techniques to compromise the victim’s banking credentials. By substituting her registered email ID, the fraudsters successfully intercepted the mandatory transaction notifications and one-time passwords (OTPs), leaving the senior citizen entirely unaware of the draining of her accounts.

A specialised team has launched a technical probe. The Kothrud police confirmed that they are currently tracking the beneficiary bank accounts into which the stolen Rs 33 lakh was transferred.