Chennai, Feb 28 (BPNS)

A Coimbatore couple who had posted an advertisement for renting out their house lost 5.8 lakh rupees to a fraudster. S. Kalaiselvi of Madukkarai, Coimbatore in a complaint to the National Cybercrime reporting portal (NCRP) stated that she posted an advertisement in a portal in January.

On January 22, a person contacted her husband Selvaraj saying that he was an officer with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and that he wanted to take the house which they had advertised on rent and to move in as early as possible.

Selvaraj informed him that they were taking six months’ rent amount as a deposit and the caller sent a link stating that it was the link to transfer money. When Selvaraj clicked the link and entered his bank account details, he lost Rs 99,500. The family was shocked and Kalaisevli immediately called the person he said that it would have been a technical error and sent another link stating that he would send the six months’ rent as well as the money ‘accidentally’ transferred in his account.

The woman in the complaint stated that the caller asked them to install an app and then enter an OTP and when the couple did so, they lost 4.99 lakh rupees from Selvaraj’s account in several installments. After that, the caller disappeared.

Coimbatore Rural crime branch police are investigating the case and a case under Section 420 of IPC and 66D of the IT Act was registered. Police appealed to the people not to share their bank account details, PIN number, or OTP with anyone to prevent such frauds.