Bengaluru woman calls customer care to seek Rs 441 refund for ill-fitting clothes, loses Rs 1.05 lakh

A Bengaluru woman lost Rs 1.05 lakh while trying to claim a refund of just Rs 441 for clothes that did not fit her, after she contacted a fake customer care number listed online. In a separate incident, another woman was allegedly duped of Rs 98,000 after searching for customer support to replace a damaged packet of curd ordered through a quick-commerce platform.

The first incident involved Prema (name changed), a 49-year-old homemaker from Horamavu, who had ordered clothes through an e-commerce platform. She returned the items because they did not fit and requested a refund of Rs 441. However, the amount remained pending for a couple of weeks.

On October 31, she searched online for the company's customer care number and came across 8893978138. She called the number and spoke to a man who identified himself as Tushar Singh.


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The caller allegedly offered to help process the refund and guided her through a series of steps. He asked her to click on a link and enter certain details. As she followed the instructions, her phone screen went blank and displayed a message asking her to wait for the refund.

Suspecting something was wrong, Prema switched off her phone and removed the SIM card. However, after switching the device on again, she discovered that money had been withdrawn from two of her bank accounts.

A total of Rs 1.05 lakh was siphoned off through unauthorised transactions, with Rs 90,000 withdrawn from one account and Rs 15,000 from another. The transactions took place between 11.14 am and 11.17 am on October 31. She told police that the accused had transferred the money through a digital payment application.

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Damaged curd packet leads to Rs 98,000 cyber fraud

In another incident in October, a 56-year-old homemaker lost Rs 98,000 while trying to seek a replacement or refund for a damaged packet of curd ordered through Blinkit.

Soundarya (name changed), a resident of an apartment on Palace Cross Road in Vasanth Nagar, had placed the order on October 17. When the packet arrived in a damaged condition, she complained to the delivery agent, who advised her to contact customer care.

She allegedly searched online for the customer care number and ended up contacting fraudsters posing as customer support representatives. The accused sent her a link on WhatsApp, which she followed, leading to the cyber fraud, according to her complaint.