The Dadar police have registered an offence of cheating after a 30-year-old man was duped to the tune of Rs 1.86 lakh when he provided his bank details to get a refund of Rs 5,500 he had paid to a `job portal’ he found online.
The victim was working as a staffer in charge of a retail store, and had uploaded his details on a job portal and paid Rs 5,500 as subscription for better job offers. In the second week of July, he received a call, purportedly from the portal, and the caller offered to return the amount paid, claiming that portal had started to refund the money after a series of poor service complaints.
In order to send him the refund, the caller sent the complainant a link and asked him to deactivate his account and pay Rs 10. When the complainant clicked the link, he found his form with all the details he had submitted to the job portal. However, he was unable to pay Rs 10. The victim then tried to pay through net banking. However, during the process, Rs 99,899 was debited from his account.
When the victim informed the caller about the transaction, the latter admitted his fault and assured that the entire amount debited would be returned. He then asked for an OTP number which would be sent to the victim’s mobiles. As soon as the complainant shared the OTP number, Rs 86,576 was deducted from his account. The fraudster then disconnected the phone.
Realising he had been duped, the victim then approached Dadar police station and registered his complaint.
“Since the fraudster had sent a link with the victim's details, and knew that he was a paying customer of the portal, the possibility that the complainant’s details had leaked from the job portal itself could not be ruled out. It is also possible that the fraudster simply procured the details of job-seekers from the portal, posing as a potential employer,” said an officer.
In case you are a victim of cyber fraud:
▪︎Immediately alert the local police station or call the 24x7 Cyber Helpline-- 9820810007 set up to prevent and tackle Cyber Crime.
▪︎For bank frauds, immediately alert the concerned bank, block the card and fill a dispute form. If a fraud is reported within 24 hours of crime, it becomes the responsibility of the concerned stakeholder to recover the money.
▪︎Never share your bank details, debit/credit card number, and One Time Password (OTP).
While alerting bank, keep following documents handy --
•Bank statement of the last six months
•A copy of SMSs received related to the alleged transactions
•Identity and address proof as shown in the bank records
