Online Scam Alert! Two Trapped Retirees Report Rs 2.87 Cr Loss; Know 4 Tips To Stay Safe From Scamsters

Despite authorities, form government agencies, banks to corporates repeatedly warning the public about the rising danger of online scams, a number of cases involving huge financial losses are revealed on a daily basis. And the latest digital arrest scams involves two government retirees from Noida in which they lost a total of Rs. 2.87 crore. Authorities have now opened official criminal investigations followed by written reports.

Police have revealed the case of a 74-year-old retired official and his relatives receiving digital arrest threats for five straight days starting from February 1 to 5. Impersonators who claimed to work for the CBI accused him of money laundering and reported that as many as 24 legal actions have been logged in Mumbai.

The scammers spoke to him on a live video chat while asking for his Aadhaar card and even sent a false court document written by a fake judge - all seemingly proving his involvement in these crimes.

The fake officials managed to convince the retiree that the criminal accusations were quite real and serious. In fact, they even convinced him to transfer Rs 1.08 crore from his bank savings account through the real-time gross settlement system.

This was when an eagle-eyed bank officer noticed the unusual withdrawal request and recommended taking it to the police for investigation.

Local police has now opened a cybercrime investigation.

The second online scam involved a 61-year-old retired ONGC official named Ramesh Kumar. He got a Facebook friend request from someone he barely remembered. Intrigued, he started a conversation. In due course, she connected him to her network and showed him how to invest in foreign currency exchange markets. He complied without verifying the real identity of the person.

Kumar soon started making payments into a fraud account and by the time he found out that he was being tricked, he lost a total of 1.79 crore.

Police teams are looking into both these cases and telling people to be careful when giving personal information or making payments through the internet to people they do not know anything about.

4 Lessons To Be Learnt

One of the biggest lessons is never to believe anyone claiming to call from banks or government agencies, especially if they start demanding money.

No bank or government official will ever call anyone asking for financial details of any kind.

Also, no one should click on any link received on their social media accounts or even mail IDs from strangers even if they sound very legitimate.

Also, increasingly, many fraudsters are using digitally altered sound to call people pretending to be close family members. These calls have sounded so genuine that it caused many people to transfer money.

There have also been instances of some criminals calling people from delivery companies indicating they are holding a package that came in their names and that it is being held up due to a glitch. They indicate it will be released for a small payment that can be made by clicking on a link they send. This again is a ruse to trap the unwary.