In recent times, many residents have been falling prey to online frauds and have been losing lakhs of rupees. In order to curb such cases, the Maharashtra cyber police have issued an advisory, asking residents to be cautious and not to fall prey to fake customer care numbers put up on the internet.
“Whenever a consumer has a problem, they call the customer service for help. However, in some cases, the fraudsters poses as a customer care official and take advantage of the victims. They coax them into revealing their bank account detail, after which they siphon off huge amounts of money,” said a cyber crime official.
Speaking about the precautions, the advisory states, “Always search for customer care numbers on the official website or applications of the service provider. Never share details such as complete card number or account number, card expiry date, CVV, PIN and OTP with anyone.”
“Always remember, search engines do not give verified information. The number provided can be fake. Do verify the identity before divulging any details to the agent. Do not install any software or provide remote access of your device,” the advisory adds.
“In most cases we have observed that the fraudsters induce the victim to install remote access application on their phones. These apps gives complete access of the phone to the fraudsters and they can misuse the notifications and OTPs that comes on the victim’s number. One should be extremely vigilant while searching for customer care numbers of service providers,” the officer said.
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