Your Account has been credited... Or has it?

Delhi jeweler Loses Lakhs to New Scam

New Delhi: Next time when you get a message from your bank informing you that money has been credited to your account, it could be a good idea to check the bank's app or your account statement to make sure the amount is indeed there. 

A Delhi jeweler learnt his lesson the hard way when he sent gold chains worth around Rs 3 lakh to a scamster after receiving phone messages claiming to be from his bank that the money had been credited to his account.

At Chandni Chowk's Kucha Mahajani, the Delhi's biggest gold and silver market in Delhi, jeweler Naval Kishore Khandelwal has been in business for five decades. When a customer called his store last week and made arrangements with his sons to buy a 15-gm gold chain over the phone, Mr. Khandelwal was visiting Ayodhya.

The customer requested Mr. Khandelwal's internet banking information so that he could send the money online because he would not be able to visit the store. The jeweler texted his sons a screenshot after learning that Rs 93,400 had been credited to his bank account after some time. The gold chain was then delivered to a customer address.

The same person called the next day to request a 30-gm gold necklace. After following the same procedure, Mr. Khandelwal received an SMS confirming that Rs 1,95,400 had been deposited into his account. This gold chain was also delivered.

The jeweler didn't realize the money hadn't been deposited until after checking his account statement on the bank's mobile app by chance. When he investigated both of the SMSs he had received, he discovered that, while being in his bank's format, they were not truly from the bank.

Mayank, his son, claimed that because the bank app for the account was only installed on his father's phone, they were unable to instantly examine the statement. 

Although a report has been filed, the police have not yet been able to locate the scamster.

A large number of other traders at the market and abroad have also been scammed.

The Ministry of Home Affairs' cybercrime portal has also received a complaint, although experts say this form of scam does not fit under that category.

This scam is not covered by cyberlaw. It is a subject of fraud and deception. The bank portal or any other web portal was not used; instead, someone sent a message by faking it. Cyber law expert Sajal Dhamija stated that the case falls under the Indian Penal Code and not in cyber law.