Mohali man loses Rs 80,000 to fraudsters

Our Correspondent

Zirakpur, August 9

A resident of Mohali is the latest victim of a suspected case of skimming as a series of unauthorised transactions worth Rs 80,000 were carried out on his debit card.

The fraud came to light when the victim, Jagtej Singh, who works as a superintendent at the Vice-Chancellor’s office at Guru Granth Sahib University, Fatehgarh Sahib, received text messages on his mobile regarding four transactions of Rs 20,000 made from his State Bank of India account branch located at Fatehgarh Sahib, which is also his salary account.

The victim checked his wallet and found the debit card intact. The police suspect Jagtej’s card has been cloned. They have started an investigation after registering a case against an unidentified person.

In his complaint, Jagtej told the police that he last used his debit card for refilling at a petrol pump in Sector 44, Chandigarh. The victim stated that on August 8 morning, he received four messages, each informing him that a withdrawal of Rs 20,000 was carried out using his debit card at different ATMs in Zirakpur and Dera Bassi. On Thursday, the victim submitted a complaint to the police along with copies of the transactions made at the ATMs.

Ajit Singh, investigating officer, said, “We have received his complaint and are investigating if it’s a case of card cloning.”

The officer said they would visit the places where the victim had recently used the debit card to find out where it could had been cloned from.

“It is not necessary that debit cards are only cloned at ATMs. So, details of his card may also have been taken from any service establishment that he may have visited,” said the officer.