Thane man loses ₹5 lakh in online fraud

A man from Maharashtra’s Thane city was allegedly duped of ₹5 lakh by online fraudsters when he was checking a fault in his TV channel service, police said on Tuesday. The incident took place on January 14 when the man called up his TV channel service provider as its details were not displayed on his television screen, an official from Chitalsar police station said quoting the victim’s complaint. While he was speaking on the phone, he got a call from another number where the caller asked him to download the AnyDesk app. After the man downloaded the app, he found that an amount of ₹5 lakh was debited from his bank account through net banking even when he had not initiated the transaction, the official said. The man subsequently complained to the police who registered a case against unidentified persons under Indian Penal Code Section 420 (cheating) and provisions of the Information Technology Act, he said. Efforts were on to trace the culprits, the police added.