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Travel scam: Scribe loses Rs 1L on first day, Rs 30k next

The cyber criminals seem have moved to the next level and are targeting rich people

BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister Dr G. Parameshwar on Gone are the days when cyber criminals tricked people and duped them using age-old trick of sending lottery messages and credit or debit card upgradation messages and convincing them to send the OTP.

The cyber criminals seem have moved to the next level and are targeting rich people. What's the new trick they are using, you may ask. Well, it is by convincing people to get their money refunded after the cancellation of tickets or online orders.

In one such case reported from the city, a woman journalist, resident of Richard's Town in the city, was duped of Rs 1 lakh in a matter of just nine minutes. The perpetrators withdrew money from her bank account via online transfer to other bank accounts and digital wallet Paytm.

The nightmare did not end there. The perpetrators hacked into her account and carried out a transaction of Rs 30,000 on Wednesday, and this time without her being involved. This happened even after the victim complained to the bank about fraudulent transactions and had requested to temporarily block her account.

It all started with a call at 5:14 pm on Tuesday. The caller introduced himself of an employee of travel website MakeMyTrip and informed the victim about the status of refund initiated after she cancelled an air ticket she had booked with Jet Airways to UK via the website.

The perpetrator had called from a mobile number 9330129583 and informed the victim that he was assigned to help her get the refund of Rs 55,000. What convinced the victim was that the caller was equipped with the last three digits of her account number with Standard Chartered bank and the IFSC code.

When the victim was convinced that he must be from MakeMyTrip, the caller sent her a few links on her mobile phone and asked her to forward the same to two mobile numbers 7065288111 and 921966255. As soon she sent the links on the mobile numbers, she received an OTP from her bank at 6:21pm. The caller asked the victim to share the OTP to complete the transaction immediately.

The victim who found the voice of the caller to be genuine, shared the OTP without realising what lay in store for her. From 6:30 pm to 6:39 pm, the victim lost Rs 1 lakh via online transfer.

"After I shared the OTP with the caller, I received a debit message of Rs 19,999 and the amount was transferred to an account ending with 5950. The rest of the transactions followed in minutes. Rs. 9,999 was debited at 6:32 pm, Rs 15,000 was transferred to a Paytm number at 6:35 pm, Rs 19,999 was transferred to the same number at 6:36 pm, Rs 19,998 was transferred to an account ending with 8259 at 6:38 pm, and the last transaction of Rs 15,000 was done at 6:39pm. This happened while I was on a call talking with bank officials," the complainant said.

The victim called up the perpetrator, who asked her to be patient and assured that the entire money will be deposited back to her account.

But on Wednesday when the victim again called up the perpetrators and asked if he was associated with MakeMyTrip, he mocked at her saying no and his profession was to make people "chutiya" (fool).

The victim rushed to the Cyber Crime police station and filed a complaint.

She again received a debit message of Rs 30,000 at 6:45pm on Wednesday. When she called up the bank, she was informed that her debit cards were blocked and the transaction was done through online banking.

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