Mumbai: With a major shift from cash transactions to online transactions by consumers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber fraudsters are also trying to cash in by targeting unsuspecting victims through various methods. The next time you look up a contact number for an establishment or organisation online, for instance, you might unwittingly become the victim of one such cyber fraud unless the number is verified as authentic.
A 55-year-old woman from Girgaum fell prey to cyber fraud when she went online in search of a customer care number. The number she found online was indeed of a fraudster who duped her to the tune of Rs 1,07,065 while returning a dress worth Rs 1,099.
According to the V P Road police, Manjiri Amrutea, a resident of Girgaum, ordered a dress worth Rs 1,099 from an online shopping portal on July 6, and received delivery of the dress on July 9. However, she did not like the dress and wanted to return it. When she called the courier delivery agent to enquire about how to return the dress, he told her to look up the portal’s customer care number online.
Amrute, who was relatively new to online shopping and had ordered clothes online for the very first time, then checked on YouTube for the shopping portal's customer care number.
When she called on the number she came across, the receiver introduced himself as a representative of the portal. He then sent a link and asked Amrute to file her credit card details and asked for an OTP number she would receive.
As soon as Amrute shared the OTP, Rs 1,07,065 was debited from her account. She immediately alerted her husband Madhusudan, who first blocked the credit card and then rushed to the police station to lodge a complaint.
"After learning about the fraud, the police officer immediately sent an email from his government email ID and asked the complainant’s bank to stop payment. The officer sent an email around 6.45 pm when the transaction wasn't completed. However, our efforts went in vain, as around 9.45 pm. the amount was transferred to the cyber fraudster’s digital wallet," said Madhusudan.
"We have registered a case under IPC section of cheating (420) and sections of the Information Technology Act. However, no arrest has been made so far," said an officer from V P Road police station.
This is the latest instance reported in the city of online cheating cases in which fraudsters replace contact details of establishments or organisations on search engines or other online platforms with their phone numbers. They then ask unsuspecting victims to make payments through e-wallets or through a link sent to them.
"As these types of scams are growing, people should be cautious and only visit official company websites for customer care numbers.
It should be made obligatory for companies to display their numbers prominently on their websites. The search engines should also take greater responsibility to prevent such frauds, and they can mark a tick for an official company website," said cyber expert Mahendra Hemdev.
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
