BENGALURU: A 49-year-old homemaker from Bengaluru lost nearly Rs 1.4 lakh to cyber fraudsters after contacting fake customer care numbers online while trying to resolve a cab booking issue during a trip to Delhi.
The victim, identified as Shuchi Agarwal, a resident of BTM 4th Stage, was allegedly duped by scammers posing as Rapido customer care executives after she searched the internet for support numbers.
According to the complaint, the incident began on May 15 when Shuchi booked a Rapido cab from Gurugram to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
During the trip, the driver informed her that the drop location displayed in the app was Terminal 2, whereas she had intended to book the ride for Terminal 1. The driver advised her to contact customer support if she faced any issues.
Shuchi later alleged that she did not receive proper assistance through the app and searched online for customer care numbers. She found two numbers — 9883371728 and 18004196230 — and attempted to contact them.
Soon after, she began receiving WhatsApp calls from another number, 9864024086. Initially ignoring the calls, she later answered after receiving a message claiming the caller was from customer support.
The caller, identifying himself as “Tushar Singh,” assured her that the issue would be resolved and instructed her to download applications named “Help Desk Host” and “Truecaller” to “register the complaint”.
Even after following the instructions, her cab issue remained unresolved. By then, she had already reached the airport and paid the driver.
While still speaking with the supposed customer care executive, she received a message stating that Rs 1,45,626 had been debited from her account.
When she questioned the caller, the fraudster allegedly claimed the money had been deducted because she had made a mistake while filing the complaint. He then convinced her that the amount could be refunded only if she strictly followed further instructions and remained connected on the call.
Meanwhile, multiple alerts began flooding her phone. Panicked, Shuchi continued complying with the instructions and unknowingly granted the fraudster remote access to her device after installing the “Help Desk Host” application.
“She received an alert of more than Rs 90,000 being debited from her account. The bank then called her for transaction verification. Shuchi informed them she had not made the payment, after which the bank blocked further UPI transactions,” said her husband, Deepak Agarwal.
According to him, the fraudster became aggressive after realising the bank had stopped additional transactions.
He then allegedly forced her to add a beneficiary account, following which another Rs 40,000 was siphoned off.
“Since he was watching her screen, he realised there was no more money left in the account and disconnected the call,” Deepak said.
Shuchi later contacted her husband, informed him about the fraud, and complaints were immediately lodged with the bank and the cybercrime helpline. After returning to Bengaluru, she filed an official police complaint.
A senior police officer said a case has been registered under provisions of the Information Technology Act and Sections 318 (cheating) and 319 (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
