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An 18 MB WhatsApp file and a domestic help’s phone: How a Bombay HC judge lost Rs 6.02 lakh in a credit card scam
The Bombay High Court judge was trying to redeem her credit card points and fell prey to the scam after contacting a customer care service number she found online.
The complaint by the judge stated that on February 28, she contacted the customer care service of a private bank through her mobile phone to redeem reward points accumulated on the credit card, but the number could not be contacted. (Composite Image)
A Bombay High Court judge recently lodged a First Information Report (FIR) with the Mumbai police, saying she had lost Rs 6.02 lakh to cyber fraud while trying to redeem credit card points.
The complaint by the judge stated that on February 28, she contacted the customer care service of a private bank through her mobile phone to redeem reward points accumulated on the credit card, but the number could not be contacted.
Thereafter, the judge searched for another customer care service number online, and when she contacted it, she received an 18 MB file on her WhatsApp number related to credit cards. However, as the same was not opening on an iPhone, a person posing as a representative of the private bank’s credit card department told the judge to insert the SIM card into an Android phone and open the said file. The judge then took her domestic help’s Android phone, downloaded the file, and submitted a form mentioning her credit card number to redeem reward points.
She then received a message on her registered email ID saying her money had been debited. Realising she had been duped, the judge blocked her credit card, called a cyber helpline, and filed a complaint with the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP). Later, an FIR was registered at the Cuffe Parade police station in South Mumbai.
The complaint by the judge claimed that people claiming to be from the credit card department of a private bank “illegally accessed her mobile without her permission, illegally misused the sensitive information of the credit card and defrauded the complainant by diverting a total of Rs 6.02 lakh from credit card account”.
The FIR was registered against unknown persons under offences punishable under sections 318(4) (cheating) and 319(2) (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and sections 66 (computer related offences), 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer devices) of the Information Technology Act.
This is not the first instance of a Bombay HC judge lodging a complaint related to cyber fraud. In December 2023, a retired chief justice of the Bombay High Court had lodged an FIR with the cyber cell of the Mumbai police after he lost nearly Rs 50,000 to cyber fraud.
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