Vile Parle-based jeweller, whom the conman had visited posing as a Jain CA, became suspicious of the latter’s strong Marathi accent; conman and his associates defrauded a charted accountant of 1.45 cr
1. Mukesh Jain, a CA, who conducts most payments on his phone, was puzzled when it suddenly stopped working
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An alert jeweller got a conman arrested after he became suspicious of his Marathi accent. The conman, along with his associates, had defrauded a charted accountant of '1.45crore by getting unauthorised control of his mobile phone number, which the CA used for all his banking transactions.
2. The fraudster who had placed an order in Jain’s name at the jeweller's raised the latters suspicion with his accent
The accused, who hails from Nashik, posed as the CA (who is from the Jain community) and went to purchase jewellery from a Vile Parle-based jeweller. The fraudster had already paid him '20lakh through RTGS (money taken from the CA's account). But, the jeweller became suspicious when he started speaking with a Marathi accent.
3. The jeweller kept the fraudster waiting, while he called the bank to verify his credentials
The jeweller then kept the fraudster busy, called the bank to verify his credentials and immediately realised he was dealing with a conman. He informed the police, who arrived at the shop and arrested the man, who has been identified as Rohit Vijay Pawar.
The con busted
According to the Vile Parle police, on Thursday, Mangal Jewellers, from Vile Parle, got an order of '20lakh from a customer, Mukesh Jain. The jeweller received payment for this order through RTGS. Later, the customer went to collect the jewellery. "The jeweller, while speaking to the customer, who he thought was Mukesh Jain, wondered how he had such a strong Marathi accent and called the police," said a source from the Vile Parle police station.
4. Once he realised it’s a case of fraud, he alerted the police who later arrested the culprit. Pics/Illustration/Ravi Jadhav
After the fraudster's arrest, the actual account holder was then informed. A preliminary probe revealed that Pawar is part of a cyber fraud gang, which defrauds people by hacking into their mobile devices and misusing them for fraudulent banking transactions.
How the gang did it
The gang first got its hands on details about Jain, who is a CA with a biotech company. The company has three group companies and Jain looks after the banking transactions of these companies. He conducts most of the transactions through his mobile phone.
On Thursday, his mobile number was suddenly disconnected. It was only after Pawar was questioned that the CA realised his cellular service was fraudulently disconnected, so, he couldn't get SMS alerts from the banks.
Investigators suspect that the fraudsters had reset the phone banking passwords and transferred '1.45crore from Jain's account and his company's bank accounts to their own accounts. One of these transactions was made to the Vile Parle jeweller.
Dos and don'ts of phone banking
> Never store your account information, such as account number, debit and credit card PINs, on your mobile handset.
> If using a banking app, never store your username and password on your mobile handset for automatic login. This may allow faster access in case of fraud
> Never use mobile banking when you are on a public network, including free WiFi hotspots.
> Never send account information via text message
> Keep changing passwords of all your online banking accounts
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