After scams where targets are enticed to reveal One Time Passwords (OTP), fraudsters are now exploiting Quick Response (QR) codes to dupe people intending to buy or sell used products on e-commerce portals and online market places.
Less than a week after a civil contractor was duped of Rs.48,999, a 25-year-old woman from Mira Road has been duped of Rs.13,500 by fraudsters using a similar modus-operandi.
Soon after placing an advertisement on the mobile application of a popular e-commerce portal to sell a used sofa and dining table, the complainant immediately received a call from a prospective “buyer” who impersonated an army personnel, showing his keen interest to purchase the on-sale furniture.
To establish his credentials, the crook shared pictures of an aadhar card and an Army canteen pass. After agreeing to pay Rs.13,500 for the furniture, the caller said he could make an online payment before taking the delivery.
Subsequently, the crook generated a QR code and the woman scanned it without realising the money was not being transferred to her but was deducted from her account. Efforts to call back the buyer fell flat since the phone was not reachable. It was then that she realised that the caller had cheated him, messages from bank alerting the withdrawals confirmed the same.
In response to the complaint, the Kashimira police registered a case under sections 420 of the IPC. However, unlike in the previous case, the investigators have refrained from slapping sections 66 and 66-C of the Information Technology Act-2000 against the caller.
