Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Cyber crooks have coined a new way to dupe people of their hard-earned money. The crooks have now begun targeting cab drivers, who lost close to Rs 1 lakh in the last one month. They book a cab online, then call up the driver to arrive at the location quickly and then hang up the phone. A few minutes later, they call up the cab driver again, telling them that a relative of theirs has been stuck somewhere and needs money on UPI apps immediately.
The caller then tells the driver that he is sending some money to him, which he will need to transfer to the caller’s kin. The caller then plays his deceitful game and sends a message to the driver’s number, which reads that the money has been deposited into his bank account. When the driver reads the message, he thinks the money has really been deposited into his bank account.
He then transfers the money on the number given by the caller only to realise later that he had been defrauded. Senior cyber crime officials told Free press that a total of 17 such cases have cropped up in the city in one month, of whom six cab drivers managed to dodge the frauds as they realised that the SMS arriving in their inbox was not from Google Pay or PhonePe, but from the caller’s number.
They also checked their bank balances to learn that no money had been deposited into their account. The remaining 11 cab drivers fell prey to the fraud, losing close to Rs 1 lakh.
Always check bank balance on receiving such calls: ACP (Cyber crime)
Cyber cell ACP Sujeet Tiwari told Free Press that in such cases when the person receives such calls, he/she must check their account balance on their device or on the banking application that they use. This may prevent them from falling prey to such UPI frauds.
