Lucknow, Jul 12 (IANS): Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan has been duped by a cyber fraudster who withdrew $383 from his credit card account.

Alok Ranjan received the transaction message and promptly got the credit card blocked.

He also filed a case at Lucknow's Gomti Nagar police station.

Ranjan, who lives in Vivek Khand, said that he received a call on July 8 at around 12 noon regarding an outstanding SBI credit card bill.

The caller introduced himself as an employee of SBI.

He said that there is an outstanding amount of Rs 1.09 lakh on the credit card. He also told me the card number.

"When the caller told me the wrong number, I interrupted him. The caller then asked me to press 9 on my mobile. I pressed 9, thinking this was a genuine call. Thereafter, the caller said that you should contact the bank, but the call got disconnected. At 6.30 pm, I received a transaction message on my mobile," he said.

He added that he got information about $383 (Rs 32,000) being withdrawn from the account.

"Thereafter, a complaint was made by calling SBI customer care," he said.

The Gomti Nagar police said that cyber fraudsters had made online purchases from the credit card of the former Chief Secretary. The police are tracking down the fraudsters with the help of the Cyber Cell.

A few days ago, poet Naresh Saxena was digitally arrested by cuber fraudsters. During this time, he was locked in a room of his house for one-and-a-half hours.

The fraudsters kept listening to his poems and kept taking details of his bank accounts.

When the daughter-in-law got suspicious, she wrote 'fraud call' on a piece of paper and showed it to her father-in-law. Then they went into the room and snatched the phone.

The incident is also from Gomti Nagar.