Ahmedabad: A 72-year-old retired bank employee was allegedly cheated of Rs 5 lakh after he clicked on a Facebook advertisement offering a pension card and was lured into sharing his personal and banking details.The victim, a resident of Makarba, approached Sarkhej police on Tuesday after noticing an unauthorised transaction from his bank account. According to his complaint, he was browsing Facebook on Sept 6 when he came across an advertisement offering a pension card, purportedly from a bank. Believing it to be genuine, he applied for the card through the link provided in the advertisement.The next day, he received a call from an unknown mobile number. The caller allegedly told him that his pension card had been approved and that his name, address and other details were required to complete the process.The victim told police that he provided the information, including details of his bank account, sought by the caller. Later that afternoon, he received an email alert about an online transaction involving Rs 5 lakh from his account.Since he had not carried out the transaction, the retired banker realised that he had been duped and immediately contacted the cybercrime helpline 1930. He subsequently checked his account and learnt that the money had been transferred online to an account in Punjab National Bank.The victim, in his complaint, stated that he had neither authorised nor initiated the transaction and suspected that the fraudsters had obtained access to his banking details after luring him with the fake pension-card offer.Sarkhej police have registered a complaint and are investigating the transaction trail and the bank account that received the money.Police are also trying to identify the caller and ascertain the source of the fake Facebook advertisement.
