Hyderabad falls prey to ‘spoof’ calls
Frauds use spoofing websites to ‘display’ company numbers
Hyderabad: Be careful if you get a call from multinational firms for job interviews. While the number that will flash on the screen of your mobile phone may be the official number of the company, beware of “spoof” calls before you take any further steps.
Many citizens have fallen prey to scamsters who commit economic fraud with the help of “spoofing” websites.
In most online job fraud cases that occured in Cyberabad and Hyderabad, crooks cheated victims to the tune of lakhs of rupees.
The numbers that flashed on the victims’ phones were from different multinational firms like IBM, Infosys, and Wipro among others.
The victims were convinced of the authenticity after crosschecking the numbers online. After giving an interview on the phone and, thereafter, receiving offer letters, the victims then transferred money to the callers’ accounts as registration and admission charges.
However, when they approached the companies with the offer letters, they found that the letters were fake and that they had been duped.
Cyber Crime cops later found out that with the help of spoofing websites, offenders could make a desired number appear on the receivers’ phone screen. In many cases, the cops were themselves misled while tracking numbers of the offenders.
More than 12 such spoofing cases have been registered in Cyberabad and Hyderabad so far.
Apart from online job fraud cases, the Multi-Level Marketing racketeers also use the spoofing method to conceal their original identities.
A student, a native of Tamil Nadu, who used the spoofing method in a case of job fraud, was arrested on Monday.
“Frauds are using spoofing sites to conceal their identities and lure victims. Spoofing sites were developed to prank people. However, they are being used by criminals. Offenders think that they can’t be tracked, but there is a solid lead that’s left behind for police in these cases,” a senior cop from Cyberabad said.
CCS DCP Pala Raju warned that the Cyber Crime police had developed effective methods to track down such offenders and each case would be detected. “We can get details of the offenders by tracing the leads with the help of service providers,” he said.
