Mira-Bhayandar: After burning the pockets of consumers through the electricity disconnection message scam, cyber-crooks seem to have devised a new modus operandi by offering reward points to get credit card details to siphon-off money from bank accounts or to make purchases.
A 42-year-old man who works with an insurance firm lost Rs 1.31 lakh to such a con, following which he registered a complaint with the Navghar police in Bhayandar on Sunday.
In his statement to the police, the complainant said that he received a phone call from an unidentified person who introduced himself as the representative of a nationalised bank while offering help to redeem reward points earned on his credit card.
The complainant not only got sweet-talked into revealing his credit card details, including card verification value (CVV) code, but he went on to share one-time passwords (OTP) —not once or twice, but five times to get cheated of Rs. 1.31 lakh.
A case under the relevant sections of the IPC and the Information Technology Act has been registered at the Navghar police station. Further investigations were underway.
Despite repeated appeals and warnings by the police to refrain from conducting any type of financial transactions with strangers, not only the nave and illiterate people but even the educated and tech-savvy youngsters are falling prey to the evil designs of cyber-criminals.
