A doctor in Biratnagar was robbed of Rs 250,000 after believing a video of an attractive rack uploaded by a TikTok account named ‘Functional House’. The rack, priced at only Rs 1,499, was very attractive, and the doctor sent a WhatsApp message to the number ‘9815632374’ seen in the video. Shortly after that, he received a reply saying ‘Send a screenshot of the product’.

The doctor replied that it was a ‘white-colored plastic drawer’. Two screenshots came from there. One of them was the same drawer as the doctor was looking for. Immediately, he said, “This is the one for Rs 1,499.” After receiving the reply that it was from there, the doctor said, “How do I order?”

A template came from there. Where he had to send his name, contact number, and location. The doctor sent the details he had asked for. Then he was told that a delivery charge of Rs 200 would be charged and that too had to be paid along with it. And, a QR code was sent. The account was in the name of ‘Aashik Kumar Mandal’ and had a Prabhu Bank account number ‘1210301159900017’. Then, he was asked to send a screenshot after making the payment. The doctor immediately sent the amount. And, he was ready to send the screenshot. And, he sent a screenshot of the successful payment.

After receiving the screenshot, a message came from there – ‘I will inform you in a moment’. Seven minutes later, another message came – ‘Please send the view all statement’.

This was the second trap set by the scammer. Where he could know how much money the victim had in the bank. And, he would plan to rob the money accordingly. “He asked me to send a screenshot of the statement. I took the screenshot. But, it showed four lakh rupees in my account,” he says, “Why did I blur the screenshot and send it to him to show the amount in my account and show him the amount in my account and show him the amount in my account.” After receiving the screenshot, a message came from there – ‘I will inform you in a moment’. Seven minutes later, another message came - 'Send all statements'.

This was the second trap set by the scammer. Where he could find out how much money the victim had in his bank. And, accordingly, he planned to rob the money. “He asked me to send a screenshot of the statement. I took a screenshot. But, it showed four hundred thousand rupees in my account,” he says, “Why did I blur it and send a screenshot showing 1,700 rupees gone to show him the amount in my account.” However, after some time, a message came from there. The doctor was busy and could not answer. He also received a call on WhatsApp. But he could not pick up that one either. Then a video call came from there. But nothing was seen. The caller said, “The money you sent has been held. You need to dispute it.”

The doctor understood what a dispute was. He immediately went to the transaction history and ‘raised issue’ and proceeded with the dispute process. And, if he had done his job. But, the person said, ‘I will show you how to do a screenshare once because Hajar has never done it.’ This was a new topic for the doctor, who had never faced such a problem before. He did the screenshare as the scammer told him. And, he went to the place the scammer told him to go.

“I will send you a QR code. Scan it and I will tell you the rest of the process,” the scammer said. The doctor also scanned the QR code from the banking app. And, at the top, the scammer had the bank account number, below that was the name. Below that was the amount option, and below that was Remarks. The scammer made the doctor write ‘return my all blc 1710’ in Remarks. And, he said, “I have a code, type it. 00248749.87.”

The doctor says, “I had a call with him. And I was screensharing. I was trying to go through the same process as he said. He asked me to paste ‘00248749.87’ in the amount. I didn’t pay attention. You don’t know that an account starts with zero zero. He brainwashed me. It didn’t occur to me that the money in the amount would go to the scammer. I thought maybe it was because I was asked to write ‘Refund my balance’ in the remarks first.”

However, the number ‘248749.87’ there was actually two lakh 48 thousand 749 rupees 87 paisa. The doctor did the same. And, by tapping on the Continue option, he entered his PIN and submitted it. By doing this, the amount had already been withdrawn from his account. However, the doctor had not yet realized that the amount had been withdrawn from his account.

Then he was asked to scan the QR code again. And, in the remarks, he was asked to type ‘refund my blc 248000 00147984.99’. Because the doctor had 4 lakh rupees in his account. And, the scammer had now planned to rob 1 lakh 48 thousand 984 rupees 99 paisa. Even now, the doctor had not realized that he had been robbed. And, he did so. However, the bank does not allow transferring more than 3 lakh rupees in a single day. Thus, a notification appeared that your limit had been exhausted. Only after this did he realize that he had been cheated.

The scammer said, ‘No, this is the way to refund. If you do the same process within the next 24 hours, your money will be returned.’ The doctor realized that he had been cheated. And, at 9 pm, he reached the ‘District Police Office’ in Biratnagar. However, neither the police nor the bank could do anything at night. He somehow got his bank account frozen. However, it took time to freeze the scammer’s account. By the time the police applied and got the account frozen, only 11 thousand rupees remained in it.

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Scam Exposed

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