An amount of Rs. 1 lakh was siphoned from the savings bank account of actor Dharmesh Vyas on December 10, two days after he received his renewed passport under the Tatkal service. Within 30 minutes of the fraud, the Oshiwara (Bombay) police’s cyber team blocked the Delhi-based account to which the money was credited on December 10.
The fraudulent fund transfer was executed from Dharmesh’s account after he received a phone call on December 7 from a person claiming to be from the dispatch department of the passport authorities. The caller informed the actor that his passport was blocked due to the delivery code being blocked. The caller then asked Dharmesh to pay Rs. 5 through GPay to unblock the code, and added that the renewed passport would be delivered within two days. The passport was, in fact, received by Vyas after two days. Although Vyas did not share any OTP or scan any QR code, the money was siphoned from his account. The Oshiwara (Bombay) police is probing how the actor’s confidential data was leaked.