The Town police station of Bhawanipatna has registered a case following a complaint made about hacking of three saving accounts of a customer of a nationalised bank and debit of Rs 57,000 from them.

The complainant is a lecturer, Pallishree Pattnaik, who works in the Government Autonomous College of Bhawanipatna.

He told the media that from one account around Rs 53,000 and Rs 2,000 each from two other accounts were withdrawn consecutively.

Pattnaik said a day before the hacking, her husband had received a message in his mobile to update the know your customer (KYC) details in the bank account.

He had transferred the message to her, asking her to update it as required by the bank. “I listened to my husband but I did not touch the link. However, next day I received a phone call at 10.15 am. The man from the other side, who was talking to me in Hindi, asked me about my date of birth, which I answered.”

She suspected foul play when her daughter phoned her about insufficient balance while purchasing a product online the same day. “I checked my balance from the banking app and knew that my account has been debited,” she said.

She allegedly said that when she went to the bank for inquiry, the banking officials took the matter casually and asked her about lodging an FIR with the police station. “After five hours, I came to know that my accounts have been hacked,” Pattnaik said.

Town PS IIC Basudev Chhatria said cyber crime cell is investigating the case and efforts are on to nab the culprit.

A bank official requesting anonymity said, “The bank always sends messages to the customers not to reply the details if asked by someone but here she replied and fell victim to the cyber crime.”