[Resolved]  Eureka Forbes — Cheated as a result of fraudulent activity

Address:

Kolkata, West Bengal, 700078

Subject: Cheated as a result of fraudulent activity in the name of Consumer Forum Complaint Resolution
This is to bring to your notice that I had lodged a complaint with the Consumer Forum of India on November 24, 2015 regarding a faulty machine from Eureka Forbes following which I received some fraudulent calls from unknown numbers who claimed to be Eureka Forbes personnel trying to refund me the money for the faulty machine and eventually robbed me of 13, 000 INR.
The details go as following:
• I lodged the complaint with the Consumer Forum in the morning to which I got a reply acknowledging the issue along with a link that gave the details of my complaint. The link is:
https://www.consumercomplaints.in/eureka-forbes-water-purifier-dr-ro-hd-system-n...⇄
• After I received this mail my wife got a call from the number: [protected]. Somebody who introduced himself as Mr. Abhijit Bhattacharya, Director Eureka Forbes told my wife that since we have lodged a complaint with the consumer forum, they need to return all the money back to us. Therefore, someone from ICICI bank will call her to verify the details and transfer the 17, 000 (the cost of the Eureka Forbes water purifier) to the account. Also, when my wife asked this person to call me and wanted to give my number he stated that since her number is registered with Eureka Forbes, he will not call any other number.
• Since my wife was quite unsure about the issue, she asked me to call this Mr. Bhattacharya and when I did he said the same thing to me too.
• Then someone called Nilesh called my wife from the number [protected] and asked her for the account ID to which the amount 17, 000 INR needs to be transferred by NEFT. Since my wife was not aware of the bank details, she asked that person to call back in 15 minutes so that she can take the details from me.
• In the meanwhile I got a call from someone who introduced himself as an ICICI bank employee. This person told me that he will give me some cash pick up code and I need to immediately collect the money from an ATM. When I told him that I am busy and I will do it later he insisted that I do it right away as Eureka Forbes needs to return the money immediately else they will be penalized by the consumer court.
• I was busy with my work and family tension, yet I went to the ATM where they again called me and told me to go to the FUND TRANSFER option in the ATM Machine after which they will give me a reference number which when keyed in will give them the authorization to transfer the money to my account for immediate withdrawal.
• I did as they told me to with one of my accounts which had a balance of about 4, 000 INR when they said that since this is a salary account they are not able to transfer it here, so I should give them my other ICICI account.
• I got into my other account and as they kept saying keyed in the numbers which they told me were the reference and code numbers respectively.
• Till now I was absolutely unaware that I had transferred all my money in the respective two accounts into their account and all the numbers they were giving me were their account numbers as I had never done an ATM Fund transfer before this instance.
• I also did not get an immediate mobile alert about any transaction due to which I all the more did not doubt any fraudulent activity.
• It was only about 10-15 minutes later when the transaction sms came did I realize that the money had been debited from my account to some unknown account which I had keyed in the ATM, considering it to be the reference number and code number.
• On realizing the whole thing I immediately got my ICICI cards blocked.
• I also called back on the numbers from where I had got the call from the so called ICICI employee who even picked my phone and told me that that the debit had happened by mistake and the amount will be refunded by 4:30. In fact the person who took the call even said welcome to ICICI and took permission to place my call on hold before transferring I to the right person.
• My wife also called on the number from which she had got the calls and that same person said that the money will be transferred by 4:30 and this was system error.
• Their phones are all switched off now and money has been refunded.
• On checking with ICICI, I have found out that the account to which the money was transferred belongs to some Mr. Ritul Kumar Bohra from Assam. The account number is:
• Also, on checking with the highest of Eureka Forbes officials in Kolkata, I found that no refund was initiated by the company due to a consumer court order and they even came to my house in the evening to rectify the issue with my water purifier.
I would request you to take a note of this entire incident as the entire transaction, though done by me was done without any knowledge of the fraud happening and the whereabouts of the account holder in whose name the money was being transferred as I had never before performed ATM Fund transfer and believed in the people calling me as they had all the details of the complaint numbers that I had lodged with Eureka Forbes as well as the Consumer Forum.
I would again like to reiterate that the fraudsters already had the following information:
• That I had two accounts with ICICI from which I had made payments to Eureka Forbes
• I was extremely annoyed with Eureka Forbes for the bad quality machine and the regular problem that I was facing
• The fact that I had filed a complaint with the Consumer Forum for a permanent solution to this issue.
• The fact that my wife’s number is registered with Eureka Forbes and mine is not
• My mobile number
Following are the numbers and names from which we got the calls:
Numbers: [protected]/ [protected]/ [protected]
Names: Abhijit Bhattacharya/ Anuj Srivastava/ Nilesh
Please be informed that I have no knowledge about the whereabouts of the account holder in whose name I had mistakenly and unknowingly transferred the 13, 000 INR from the two ICICI accounts.