Karnataka internal security division chief falls for phishing trap, loses lakhs

Karnataka Internal Security Division (ISD) chief Ashit Mohan Prasad fell prey to a phishing scam in Bengaluru and lost about Rs. 2 lakh (Rs. 200,000) to callers earlier this week.

Prasad is reported to have filed a complaint with the cybercrime division of the CID. He received the phishing call on Monday, reports the ToI. The caller allegedly claimed to be a bank employee who said that Prasad's debit cards were about to expire and that he needed to reactivate them. Shortly thereafter, he received another call from someone else who also claimed to be calling from a different bank about his second card and he handed over his details to them as well, notes the report. Cybercriminals then proceeded to drain out his account within minutes. The crooks took money from both the accounts, a lakh from each.

The calls reportedly happened at around 3 pm and by 4 in the evening, Prasad received notifications from his bank that money had been withdrawn.

"I was in a hurry to leave and the executive who called me shared my debit card numbers and said they were about to expire. Due to negligence at that moment, I shared details and within minutes, I received messages saying money has been debited," Prasad said, confirming that he had indeed fallen for the scam.

The report notes that Prasad was not the only target that day and that 27 other people had received similar calls on Monday. A few of them even fell for it, notes the report, but details regarding the other cases are not yet clear.