Lucknow, Dec 25 (IANS): A retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer here has lost Rs 29 lakh of his pension settlement that he had received only a month ago to a cyber fraud.

Rakesh Chandra, who was last deputed in Aligarh and is now a Janakipuram resident, said in his police complaint that the fraudsters had approached him disguising themselves as a treasury officer.

An FIR under IPC sections 419 (cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating), and 66C and 66D of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 had been registered at the cybercrime police station in the city.

The ex-officer also alleged involvement of bank officials in the scam.

Chandra said he got a call on December 8 from a man who introduced himself as Kuldeep from the treasury in Lucknow. Kuldeep took all of his banking information over the phone conversation.

“When I realised that it was a trap call, I immediately went to my bank and asked a bank official to freeze my account. Following this the bank sealed my account,” Chandra added.

A few days later he noticed that all of the money from his account had disappeared and the bank officials refused to entertain his complaint.