Mumbai Government Employee Loses Rs 12.3 Lakh in Online Loan Fraud

Mumbai, 27th September 2025: A 50-year-old government employee recently discovered that a top-up loan of Rs 12.3 lakh was fraudulently taken in his name, resulting in automatic deductions from his bank account. The incident was reported to the cyber police.

The complainant, who works at the Government Central Press in South Mumbai, said the scam began with a WhatsApp video call on July 2 from a man identifying himself as a bank official, Vedprakash Sharma. “He told me my KYC hadn’t been updated and that my ATM card was blocked. He asked me to show my front and side profiles on camera, claiming it was for a ‘retina scan’ to update KYC,” the employee recounted.

The next day, the complainant faced difficulty withdrawing cash from an ATM. After contacting Sharma again, he was given a temporary PIN, which allowed him to withdraw money.

Trouble escalated on August 5, when the employee received a message showing Rs 46,235 had been deducted from his account. “I was shocked because my EMI was only Rs 7,687,” he said. Upon checking the bank’s mobile app, he discovered that a top-up loan of Rs 12.3 lakh had been fraudulently processed through his account, with EMIs being auto-deducted.

On returning to Mumbai, the employee visited his bank and learned that the loan had been sanctioned on July 5 and the disbursed amount had already been transferred to multiple accounts. Further investigation revealed that his registered phone number in the bank records had been changed.

The FIR filed with the South Region Cyber Police states, “It appears the fraudsters changed the complainant’s phone number in the bank records and applied for a top-up loan in his name, siphoning the funds immediately.”

Cyber police are now investigating the case and tracing the accounts to which the stolen funds were transferred.