Mumbai:

No less than 40 prospects of a non-public financial institution in Mumbai had been cheated of lakhs of rupees inside three days after they clicked on a hyperlink despatched by way of pretend textual content messages to replace their KYC and PAN particulars.

The Know Your Buyer (KYC) course of is necessary for financial institution prospects to confirm their identification.

In an advisory, Mumbai Police has cautioned residents towards clicking on such hyperlinks asking financial institution prospects for his or her confidential particulars.

Fraudsters are sending such pretend SMS with phishing hyperlinks to the shoppers stating that their checking account is blocked for not updating their KYC/ PAN card particulars, in accordance with the advisory .

Such hyperlinks direct the shoppers to a pretend web site of their financial institution the place they’re requested to enter their buyer ID, password, and different confidential particulars.

Among the many 40 victims who’ve reported the alleged frauds was TV actor Shweta Memon.

In her grievance, Ms Memon stated final Thursday she had clicked on a hyperlink from the pretend textual content message, believing it was from her financial institution. On the portal that opened, she entered her buyer ID, passwords, and OTP.

She stated she additionally acquired a telephone name from a lady posing as a financial institution official, who requested her to insert one other OTP she acquired on her cell quantity. Following this, Rs 57,636 was debited from her account.