Kochi: If you are a victim of online fraud, then try to contact the cyber cell at the earliest without wasting time for negotiations with your bank or consulting with experts.
Fraudsters on Thursday tricked a woman in Kochi into giving her One Time Password (OTP) and used the same to make online purchases worth Rs 1.66 lakh. However, upon learning about the money withdrawal from her account through a mobile message, the native of DH Road here, wasted no time and approached the cyber cell with a complaint within an hour.
“The fraudsters called her posing as bank officials and asked her to give them the OTP for renewing her credit card. However, when the money was transferred out of her account, she realised that she was tricked. Since she complained to us immediately, we managed to find out that the fraudsters used the money to order the latest model of Apple iPhone X64,” a police officer said.
The cyber cell contacted administrators of e-commerce sites Flipkart and Amazon and asked them to cancel the order. The amount was credited back to the account. Further probe is on,” the officer said.
Following the incident, the Kochi Police issued an advisory to the public not to share any details of bank account or debit or credit cards with unknown persons contacting on the phone.
“Fraudsters generally contact the persons and demand the OTP in the guise of linking Aadhaar, renewal of ATM or credit card and for redeeming the reward points. Do not share the ATM or credit card number, CVV and OTP with anybody and do not conduct transactions on websites which are unsafe,” said M.P. Dinesh, Kochi city police commissioner.
