FPJ Cyber Secure: 57-Year-Old Man Loses ₹50,000 In E-Gift Card Fraud

Mumbai: A 57-year-old man who works as deputy general manager in a private company at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) recently fell prey to the gift card fraud. The victim had received a WhatsApp communication from a person impersonating as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the victim's company.

The fraudster asked the victim to urgently send him Apple Store Codes (a voucher that holds credits which can be used to conduct purchases in the Apple App Store). The victim sent 10 codes worth ₹5000 each and later learnt that he had been duped by an imposter.

The online e-gift fraud

According to the police, on July 28, around 11:17 am, when the victim was at his office, he received a WhatsApp missed call from an unknown number that had a display picture (DP) of his company's CEO. The victim called back on the said number, but his call was disconnected. He then received a WhatsApp message asking him to do a confidential and urgent work and was told to Apple Store Codes and send the codes to the said number.

Believing that the message was sent by his senior, the victim followed the instructions and got the said codes purchased and shared them with the imposter. The fraudster then told the victim to buy five more codes, but this time the victim suspected something amiss and enquired further only to realise that he had been duped.

Victim one of several to get duped

The victim also learnt that on June 09, another colleague of his had received a similar WhatsApp message from another number that had DP of the company's CEO. The victim then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter on Monday.

The police has registered a case under section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.