A Sri Lankan social media user has warned the public about callers posing as bank representatives, saying his 70-year-old father was defrauded of Rs 4.6 million, Hiru News reported on Wednesday.
In a post relayed by the broadcaster, the man said someone telephoned his father claiming to be carrying out a tax calculation on behalf of a private bank. During the same call, the caller asked for the father’s banking details and for a one-time password (OTP).
Not realising it was a fraud, his father passed on the information. Rs 4.6 million subsequently went missing from the account, the post said.
The man added that a bank officer had told him two further incidents of the same kind were reported during that same week.
What the account is, and is not
The account comes from a family member’s public post as carried by Hiru News. No police complaint, investigation or arrest was reported in connection with the case, and the bank involved was not named. The figures and sequence described here are the family’s account rather than an established finding.
The standing advice
The report repeated guidance that applies regardless of the individual case: no bank, the Inland Revenue Department, or any other state institution asks for OTPs, PIN numbers or banking passwords over the telephone.
Anyone receiving such a call is advised to end it immediately and contact their bank on its official published numbers to verify what they were told. The post urged particular vigilance for senior citizens, who are repeatedly targeted by callers impersonating bank staff and government officials.
Variants of this fraud have recurred through recent weeks. Sri Lanka CERT has warned of a fake bank “gift” message circulating online, police have warned of dating-app scams that plant banking malware on victims’ phones, and a Galle case involved an AI-cloned voice used to impersonate a medical student and take Rs 1.8 million from a 71-year-old. Those are separate incidents; the common thread is the request to hand over a credential by phone.
