Scam call alert: Elderly man loses life savings while updating KYC; Here's what happened

livemint.com:

₹2.5 lakh. The retired official, named SP Sinha, resided in Kolkata's Thakurpukur lost his life savings to a treacherous call deceiving to be from the bank where he held an account. The agent called Sinha and disguised as bank official stationed at “table number 3" of the same branch where Sinha held his pension account, reported Metro.

The traitor asserted the intention of his call to be for verification purpose and was reaching out to verify Sinha's KYC (know your customer) details online. Sinha said, “On November 11 (the day before Diwali), I received a call in the afternoon. The man said he was calling from the bank (the branch where Sinha has his pension account)." Sinha trusted the caller's legitimacy and agreed to follow the instructions to update his KYC as he had been visiting the same bank and the same table for his work that the caller mentioned along with his bank account details.

Sinha added, "He also mentioned my account number. When I said the bank was closed that day, he said only the 'verification' section was open and that I needed to update my KYC," reported Metro. Convinced Sinha faced difficulties while processing the KYC verification process so he sought help from his 11-year-old grandson who followed instructions adeptly.

When the call concluded Sinha discovered that ₹2,57,650 were debited from his account. Moreover, Sinha also lost access to his fixed deposits and recurring deposits. Government or prominent institutions like banks do not initiate financial transactions over phone calls and frequently indulge in follow up messages to create awareness about not to disclose account details to anyone over call.