New Delhi: As a rule the contact numbers of Customer care centers should only be taken from the website of the concerned department or institution rather than a random Google search as internet searches could throw up fraud numbers.
Retired Delhi University Proffesor. Rita Brara was duped of Rs 29,997 by one such fake customer care center.
"I needed to retrieve my PNB demat number which I had lost, I was frantically calling up the Customer Care number but no one was answering, so out of desperation I Googled if they have some other Customer Care number. I got one such number in the search result and called it, it sounded exactly like a customer care as the person answering the call interacted with me in exactly the same manner in which a CC executive attends a complaint. The person assured me that he would retrieve my number but would carry out verification, he firstly asked me for my ATM card number, then he sent me an OTP, the OTP SMS also mentioned an amount. I asked why this amount is mentioned, he said that it is for verification and the amount would be deducted and then immediately re-reimbursed, he explained that this is the Bank's way of verifying the customer. It was my folly that I believed this and as I accepted, the amount got deducted from my account. On not receiving my demat account number I got suspicious, I went to my bank branch, there it was confirmed that the amount of Rs 29,997 was deducted from my account. As per the bank officials advise I agreed to get my ATM blocked, then I approached the cyber crime cell of the Delhi Police and lodged a complaint."
Prof. Brara admits that she made mistakes but stressed that had her Bank's Custumer Care been responsive she would not have looked for an alternative number and such an incident would not have occurred.
"Despite repeatedly calling the Customer Care number there was no response hence I tried this fraud number retrieved from the internet to get through, also the depositaries section of my bank used to be in Parliament Street in Delhi but some time ago it shifted to Mumbai, they did not intimate me about the contact details of the new office, had that been done then this could have been avoided." (UNI)
