Ahmedabad: A 48-year-old businessman from Naranpura fell victim to a cyberfraud after he contacted a number listed online for a piped gas company. The unidentified fraudster, posing as a company representative, duped him of Rs 3 lakh under the pretext of updating e-KYC details.The incident came to light after the businessman filed a complaint of cheating and criminal breach of trust at the Naranpura police station on Friday.According to the FIR, the victim was trying to surrender the gas connection from his old house and searched for the agency's contact number on the internet. He contacted one of the numbers but couldn't get through. Later, he received a callback from a person claiming to be from the gas agency, who offered to assist with the surrender process.

The caller asked him to download an app via a link sent on WhatsApp, claiming it was needed to cancel the ECS mandate. "The moment I opened the link, my phone screen went black and I lost control of the device," the complainant said.Sensing that his phone had been compromised, he restarted it and contacted his bank's customer care service. As there were no immediate deductions from his account, he chose not to block his banking services.

However, on Wednesday, he received a message notifying a PIN change linked to his mobile number. Alarmed, he blocked all his accounts, debit and credit cards, and online banking services. Despite this, transactions worth nearly Rs 3 lakh were made between 10.56 am and 11.16 am the same day.The businessman informed the city's cybercrime unit and later lodged a formal complaint with Naranpura police station.