Banks’ ‘no-funds’ pleas about mule accounts dash hopes of cyber fraud victims in Bengaluru

In the first week of February, Shakeela Begum, 40, a housewife and resident of east Bengaluru, received phone calls about a scheme where poor families would receive Rs 2 lakh if they paid Rs 20,000 to obtain a GST number.

The unsuspecting woman transferred Rs 20,000 through a digital payments system to a number she had been provided. She soon received another call stating that she could get Rs 4 lakh if she paid an additional Rs 18,000 for a second GST number.