The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of the people all across the globe and many are risking their lives for the common good such as doctors, nurses, sanitary workers, cops and social workers. However there exists another type of men who use the opportunity to fleece money from others and that too in the most heartless manner possible.

In Chinneri village in Chengalput district the Irula tribe people reside and one of them Rani received a call from an unknown person telling her that the Prime Minister has allotted rupees five thousand to her and the villagers as relief fund. Rani had then called around forty-five people of her tribe and all of them had spoken to him and he collected their bank account details claiming to be from the State Bank of India.

In a span of six to seven hours the conman had procured the bank account details and also had got them to reveal the one time passwords from them that the bank uses to alert them. Only later the villages realized that the man had used the scam to withdraw hard earned money from all their accounts to the tune of one lakh twenty-eight thousand rupees.

The amount may seem small to the well to do but it took years for the Irula tribals to earn the money by doing small-time jobs. A case has been registered and the cops are on the lookout fo the fraudster.