The Maharashtra Cyber Department on Thursday issued advisory warning citizens against the ongoing Gift Card scam. The police have also informed the citizens that e-gift cards are something which are sent to someone as gifts and not something which is demanded by someone to make any payments.
According to the police, in recent times there have been several cases wherein people had been receiving WhatsApp messages from an unknown number, which had the Display Picture (DP) of their employers or someone known to them, asking the victim to send e-gift cards. Later after having sent e-gift cards, the victim realised that he/she had been duped after verifying with the actual person.
Cautioning citizens in order to not fall prey to this fraud, the advisory states, "Don't fall into the trap of fraudsters approaching from WhatsApp or social media. One should not give any personal details to suspected websites or unknown persons and one should not share his/her gift voucher or gift card details with anyone as these can be misused."
On October 06, a 35-year-old gymnastic coach from Vile Parle had fallen prey to the gift card fraud. The victim had received a message from an unknown WhatsApp number which had a DP of a professor known to him, asking the victim to urgently send her 20 e-gift cards worth Rs 5000 each as she was not having her ATM card with her. The victim managed to send 18 e-gift cards to the fraudster and later he found out that he had been duped.
Similarly, in July this year, a woman working in a posh hotel lodged a complaint with the MIDC police stating that she had received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number, which had the DP of the hotel's chief executive officer (CEO), asking the victim to send e-gift cards. The victim spent the entire night arranging for the gift cards and ended up sending 25 gift cards of Rs 10000 each. Later when the victim met the CEO she found out that she had been duped.
