“It is a myth that the educated will not fall prey to cyber frauds. Scamsters use their skills to convince victims to invest in fraudulent schemes or install fake apps giving remote access or reveal confidential details such as OTP. Often, victims transfer more and more till they empty their accounts in the hope of getting the entire amount listening to false assurances,” said a Cyberabad inspector.
For instance, two IT consultants in their late thirties lodged separate complaints with the police a few weeks ago stating that they had lost Rs 10.2 lakh and Rs 3.8 lakh respectively in a crypto mining app.
“They promised guaranteed returns after a lock-in period of 25 or 35 days in the crypto app. In the WhatsApp investment advise groups, we were shown that the investment was insured. But as the lock-in period was about to end, I was removed from the WhatsApp group and the app also became inaccessible,” alleged one of the complainants.
While googling for customer care numbers/bank website etc., is par for the course, most people tend to forget that they should verify it before proceeding forward, a cop said. A 22-year-old quality engineer from Hafeezpet learnt this the hard way after losing Rs 1.68 lakh.
She googled for IDBI customer care number, dialled it and pretty soon got a call back from ‘executive Saurav Sharma‘ who made her install AnyDesk remote access app on her phone when she sought help to update the pass book. By the time she realised it was a fraud, her bank account was lighter by Rs 1.68 lakh.
In the case of a 39-year-old tech lead of a financial solutions MNC in Madhapur, a smooth-talking ‘advisor’ in WhatsApp and Telegram investment groups broke through his defences with the usual tall tale of massive returns.
The ‘advisor’, Aditya Santosh, convinced him to transfer money for online gambling via an app. The techie continued to invest for a month as the available balance on the app showed Rs 5.8 lakh, but soon realised it was a fraud when he couldn’t withdraw. The victim lodged a police complaint in the last week of February after losing Rs 2.2 lakh in a span of two weeks.
“Most of the fraudsters behind customer care frauds, investment cheating, OTP scam and other cyber crimes are now operating from Rajasthan, Haryana and UP states,” Cyberabad cyber crime ACP G Sridhar said, adding that police teams are working on the leads to nab the gangs.