An elderly Bengaluru woman lost Rs 77,000 after falling victim to a fraud. A 65-year-old woman was tricked by a scammer who got her to follow his directions and enter her UPI PIN on her digital payment app.
According to The Times of India, a Kasturba Nagar resident often purchased milk from an online grocery store. However, on March 18, she realised the milk was spoiled and chose to return it.
The woman looked up the customer service number for the platform online and called it. The individual answering identified himself as an executive from the store’s platform.
The man assured her that she did not need to return the ruined milk and that her money would be reimbursed if she followed a set of instructions. The woman received a message on WhatsApp with the UPI ID number 081958, and the fraudster instructed her to click on the ‘transfer money’ option on PhonePe and then click on the ‘To Bank/UPI ID’ link.
Unaware that she was being duped, the woman followed the directions and clicked the link to be sent to a screen where the scammer pushed her to enter the number she had received on WhatsApp and choose UPI ID.
After providing the final five digits of the phone’s number, the woman was instructed to select the ‘pay’ option and enter the UPI ID to receive her money back. But as soon as she entered the number, the scammer pulled money out of her account and ended the conversation.
The woman understood she had been duped at that point and reported it to the local police station.
A senior police official informed the media outlet, “We have taken up the case under the Information Technology Act and measures are taken to freeze the amount from the fraudster’s account.”
While cashless payments have undoubtedly made things much more feasible, there are also more online frauds now than ever before. These fraudsters occasionally devise extraordinary schemes to trick gullible individuals. An Australian man recently got a text on his cell phone that seemed to be an effort to breach his bank account. He just had to press ‘OK’ to begin the process of getting a new card from the bank.
The man contacted the bank right away to confirm. The bank responded by stating that this information was accurate. Following the guarantee, he clicked OK, but his account was promptly deducted by Rs 16 lakh. The bank now claims that the probe will take 45 days to complete and refuses to acknowledge their role in it.
Having said that, it is crucial to exercise caution and keep your passwords, PINs, OTPs, and other confidential information private. If you suspect something seems amiss with a specific scenario, call cyber security immediately for assistance.
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