Navi Mumbai: A Belapur-based businessman became the latest victim of a hi-tech credit card fraud in which he was duped of Rs 48,317 by unidentified persons who used his online card information to buy and sell genuine air tickets. “Last Saturday, at 4.45 pm, I was shocked to receive a text message from my credit card company on my cellphone saying an Air Deccan flight ticket for Sunday, May 18, had been bought with my card. This was followed by four more text messages that more air tickets had been procured through an online transaction. But I had not used my card at all,’’ said 30-year-old Anit Dhingra. He pointed out that even though his Visa card has a credit limit of Rs 36,000, a total amount of Rs 48,317 was somehow withdrawn via the internet. His 16-digit credit card number and also the confidential CVV number, which is similar to a secret PIN number, was used to operate the card online. “I asked my credit card company to block the number and also contacted Air Deccan to check who was travelling on the tickets bought from my account,’’ added Dhingra. He got to know that the Air Deccan tickets were bought for two routes: Mumbai-Mangalore and Delhi-Hyderabad. Dhingra had to first give a letter of complaint to the airport police at the domestic air terminal in Santa Cruz, in order to get the tickets cancelled. Interestingly, only three passengers turned up for the Mumbai-Mangalore flight on Sunday, which included a judicial magistrate from Kerala. The police found all of them to be innocent as they had bought the air tickets from an agent and were unaware of the fraud. “The police detained the three air travellers, including the magistrate, for nearly nine hours. A lawyer representing the judge had requested me to take back my complaint as they did not know that the tickets had been fraudulently obtained by a third party. The judge had come to Mumbai to attend a wedding of one of his relatives,’’ said Dhingra. When TOI contacted the investigating officer, PSI S D Jadhav, he said the investigation so far had revealed that the air tickets were bought online by someone based in the Nagpada-Dongri region. “We did detain some passengers based on the information given to us by Air Deccan, but they turned out to be innocent and not part of any online racket,’’ said PSI Jadhav, adding that further investigation was on. Dhingra is hopeful that his bank will compensate him for the money lost from his account due to the cyber crime. “I have been told that it will take three days for the bank to get back to me with their reply. But as I have regularly paid all my credit card bills on time, I want to be compensated,’’ he said, adding that he will also complain to the Navi Mumbai cyber crime cell in order to trace the culprits.
vijay.singh3@timesgroup.com
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