There’s something heartbreaking about hearing stories about people who serve our nation falling prey to scams that many of us don’t think twice about.
The kind of scam that doesn’t come in with noise or force, but with a soft, calm voice and a well-rehearsed script.
This is the story of Hemant Kumar, a 48-year-old Subedar in the Indian Army, who thought he was speaking to a banker, not a con artist.
It was a regular morning in May. Hemant had just wrapped up his routine and was enjoying a quiet moment on his balcony in Delhi Cantonment when his phone rang.
The number on the screen looked just like the one printed on the back of his bank card.
“Hello, Mr. Hemant Kumar?”
“Yes, speaking.”
“This is Rajeev from your bank’s customer care team. We’ve noticed that an international transaction service has been activated on your credit card ending with 8742.
It’s going to charge you ₹20,000 in the next 24 hours if not disabled. Would you like to deactivate it?”
Hemant paused. He didn’t remember activating anything like that.
“I don’t think I activated this. I haven’t even used my card recently.”
“No problem, sir. Sometimes it gets activated during general updates.
If you want, I can guide you through the deactivation right now. It will hardly take two minutes.”
And just like that, the scammer set the stage.
The Power of Familiar Voices
The person on the other end spoke like every other bank executive Hemant had ever dealt with. Polite, articulate, slightly rushed, like they had a hundred other calls to make.
“We’ll just need you to download the bank’s secure service app so we can verify and disable the feature. I’ll send you the link on WhatsApp now,” the caller said.
Hemant, who wasn’t tech-savvy and still preferred going to the branch in person, asked cautiously, “Is it safe? This doesn’t sound like the regular process.”
“It’s a one-time verification app, sir. Only for deactivation. The link is official. You’ll see the bank’s logo when you open it.”
Minutes later, Hemant had the APK file downloaded, installed, and opened, unknowingly handing over control of his phone to the scammer.
The Deceptive Calm Before the Storm
The app asked for basic details. Name, phone number, and last four digits of the credit card. Then it asked for the CVV and expiry date.
“Enter the details quickly, sir. Once done, the OTPs will come, just read them out loud so I can verify and complete the process,” said the caller, as if it were just another routine task.
One by one, the OTPs started arriving. One by one, Hemant read them out loud.
Within a few minutes, he received 11 OTPs and lost ₹1.8 Lakh in 11 different unauthorized transactions.
The scammer had cut the call.
When the Realization Hits
Hemant was stunned. Not because he’d been scammed, that hadn’t even hit him yet, but because of how normal the whole process had felt.
No alarms, no suspicious tone, no shady language.
Just an overly helpful “banker” solving a problem that didn’t exist.
It was only when he tried to call the bank directly and got the real customer care executive on the line that he heard the dreaded words:
“Sir, we haven’t made any calls to you today. And we never ask customers to install third-party apps or share OTPs. I’m afraid these are fraudulent transactions.”
A Wider Pattern, A Familiar Script
Unfortunately, Hemant’s story isn’t unique. Around the same time, another retired Major General in Panchkula lost ₹83 lakh to scammers pretending to be law enforcement, threatening him with “digital arrest.”.
In Lucknow, an Army officer and three others lost nearly ₹82 lakh in a mix of job scams and phishing schemes.
Each of these scams had the same underlying structure:
A problem is created out of thin air.
A solution is offered quickly.
Urgency is used as a weapon.
And trust is silently used as bait.
The Scam that Feeds on Obedience
People often ask, How do educated, experienced individuals fall for this?
The answer lies in how these scams are built. They’re not designed to outsmart you intellectually.
They’re designed to tap into how we’re trained to behave in structured environments, especially in institutions like the Army.
You’re taught to listen, follow procedures, and trust the chain of command.
Now imagine someone who sounds like they’re from the bank, using the same language, giving instructions in the same calm, authoritative manner.
You don’t question them because the system has taught you not to.
What Happened to the Fraudsters?
Thanks to Hemant’s quick reporting and some solid work by Delhi Police’s cyber cell, three men were eventually arrested.
Their base of operations was traced back to Jamtara, the infamous cybercrime hub in Jharkhand.
Their playbook was simple: get access to phones using malicious APK files, watch OTPs arrive, and drain credit cards and bank accounts in real-time.
They’d already run similar scams across multiple states before being caught.
Closing Thoughts: Staying One Step Ahead
Hemant eventually got some of his money back through bank reversals and insurance, but the psychological blow was harder to recover from.
For someone who had spent nearly three decades in service, being fooled over a simple phone call stung more than the money lost.
If there’s one thing we can take from his story, it’s this: scams don’t always look like scams.
They often come dressed as customer service.
So the next time someone calls you and tells you there’s a problem with your account, pause. Hang up.
Call the bank directly using their official number. Don’t click unknown links, and never — ever — share OTPs.
Because trust, once lost, can cost you more than you think.
