Chandigarh: Six city residents lost more than Rs 14 lakh in separate cyber fraud incidents involving compromised phones, unauthorised bank transactions, fake emergency requests and malicious online links. The Cyber Crime police station in Sector 17 has registered multiple FIRs against unidentified persons and launched investigations.In the biggest case, Sector 56 resident Jot Singh alleged that fraudsters gained access to his mobile phone and siphoned off Rs 4.86 lakh from his and his wife’s bank accounts through unauthorised transactions. Police said Rs 1.51 lakh was withdrawn from Singh’s HDFC Bank account and Rs 3.35 lakh from his wife’s Punjab National Bank account.In another case, Dr Swati Tewari of Sector 15-A reported unauthorised debits worth Rs 1.34 lakh from her Canara Bank account on Oct 14 and 15. She told police she had not shared any OTP and later discovered that call forwarding had been activated on her phone, with calls being diverted to an unknown number.A resident of Police Society Complex, Sector 51, Satish Kumar, allegedly lost Rs 3 lakh after a fraudster posing as a friend of his neighbour’s son sought money on the pretext of a medical emergency. Believing the caller, Kumar transferred Rs 1.5 lakh on two occasions to a bank account provided by the accused. The fraud came to light when the promised transfer of Rs 8.52 lakh never materialised.In a separate incident, Arjun Karnwal of Sector 34 lost Rs 97,000 after clicking on an advertisement while watching Facebook reels. He told police that his phone became unresponsive after opening a link linked to the advertisement. Soon afterwards, Rs 55,000 and Rs 42,000 were debited from his account through Google Pay.Police said they are examining transaction details, tracing the money trail and trying to identify the people behind the frauds. No arrests have been made so far.HOW THE SCAMS WORKEDFake friend, fake emergencyFraudster posed as a friend of a neighbour’s sonClaimed Rs 8.52 lakh had been transferred and would reflect laterSought money citing a medical emergencyVictim transferred Rs 3 lakh in two instalmentsPhone compromiseFraudsters allegedly gained access to a victim’s mobile phoneUnauthorised transactions drained Rs 4.86 lakh from family accountsCall-forwarding trickWoman discovered calls from her number were being diverted to another numberRs 1.34 lakh withdrawn from her account without authorisationMalicious linkVictim clicked a link after opening a Facebook advertisementPhone became unresponsive; Rs 97,000 was allegedly siphoned offTotal loss in the four cases: Rs 10.17 lakh
