cyber crimes

1. The Card Fraud

ATM card fraud

2. The OLX/Quikr scam



scamsters

3. The QR code scam

4. Groom/gift from abroad



5. Attention diversion scam

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6. The Job Fraud

7 The Sex Scam

scams

8. The KBC scam



9. Cashback scam



10. Skimming and Cloning scam

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Bengaluru’s prosperity is the cynosure of all eyes. It has led todoubling from 5,000+ in 2018 to 10,000+ in 2019. Bellie Thomas & Pragna L Krupa list the most common cons in the cityThe most common form of online fraud is. Conmen scare you into sharing your OTP or personal details which can then be used to empty out your bank account.A random telephone call from somebody claiming to be your bank’s official sets the scam in motion. He/she asks for your ATM card details and inform you that the card will get deactivated if you do not ‘update’ your details with the bank. The caller asks you for the card number, expiry date and the CVV pin. These details are enough to request a password change or authorise a transaction for which an OTP is sent on your registered mobile number. The caller would then ask for the OTP so that he/she can update the bank records. The moment you share the OTP, poof! The money in your bank account disappears.Never, ever share the OTP number with anyone. No. Matter. What.Online classifieds sites such as OLX and Quikr have borne the brunt of’ schemes. Crooks target both buyers and sellers on these platforms.Conmen post ads of sparingly used bikes and cars to entice buyers who they know have ready cash. Usually, the price is ridiculously cheap. When the potential buyer contacts the seller, he/she is told that the vehicle is parked at a VIP parking lot or at the Kempegowda International Airport or at a Customs holding area. The buyer would then be asked to get in touch with the ‘in-charge’ of the facility so that the vehicle can be released for a test drive.The facility ‘in-charge’ would ask for a fee/penalty claiming the owner hadn’t paid it. Recently, 24-year-old Mohammad Azar, a data science student, was duped of Rs 58,100 while he was trying to buy a second-hand Honda Activa on OLX. Similarly, a 39-year-old software engineer lost Rs 2.83 lakh after he decided to buy a pre-owned SUV, a Mahindra XUV 500, that was available for Rs 6,60,000 on Quikr. He was told that Customs was selling a car parked at the VIP parking at KIA.Never shell out money/your details to see a vehicle. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it definitely is.This is where the conman gets you when you are trying to sell a product on OLX or Quikr.Once a customer puts up his merchandise for sale on the classifieds portals, the cyber-crooks contact them and evince interest in buying it. Usually, they don’t even come to check the product and agree to the quoted price. They ask you to consider the product as sold and not offer it to anyone else. Then the con begins. They send you a QR code stating they are sending you money; when you scan it money moves out of your account (for non-geeks: A QR code is a code that your phone recognises. The QR code can do anything that one wants, like opening a particular website, performing a certain function etc.So the QR code that cybercrooks send you is nothing but a code to request a certain amount from your bank. When you accept it, money goes out even though you are told that it is a QR code for payment).A 63-year-old retired three star defence officer and a soldier lost a total of Rs 1.45 lakh while negotiating the sale of the retired officer’s grandson’s bunk bed put up on sale for Rs 20,000 on OLX. They got conned after scanning the QR codes sent by the prospective buyer who turned out to be a cybercrook.If somebody wants to buy a product without even touching and feeling it (a very Indian trait), then the buyer in all likelihood is a scamster. Do not accept QR codes from unknown peopleMany well-educated women have fallen for this scam. And what’s surprising is that despite reams being written about it, women still send money (sometimes after borrowing huge sums) when they fall victim to this scam. How it’s pulled off: The scamster uploads his profile or contacts somebody who has uploaded hers and claims to be a big shot in the US or UK. After befriending the woman, he wants to meet her or send her an expensive gift. He generally sends pictures of the gift or his hotel and flight bookings to convince her that he or the gift is on the way. But strangely enough, he or the gift gets stuck at ‘Customs’ or the ‘courier company’. A ‘Customs’ or ‘courier company’ official then calls the woman, says the gift or the man’s baggage etc exceeds allowance and money has to be paid to clear it.Recently, 33-year-old hospital receptionist, Shrilatha (name changed), lost nearly Rs 2 lakh when she believed that a certain Dr Stanislaus Lobo wanted to marry her. Dr Lobo said he was coming to India to fix the wedding. But before that, he sent her a packet of pen drives containing family albums and a few gifts like vanity bags, designer perfumes, diamond studded watches, an iPhone. He even sent pictures of all these items to Shrilatha and told her that the packet would reach her by January 7. Then, a woman claiming to be from Trustway Couriers called Shrilatha and asked her to pay up goods tax for the gifts. When Shrilatha checked with Dr Lobo, he confirmed it and said that he had kept 10,000 pounds in the packet which will make up for Shrilatha’s loss. He even sent an online booking confirmation of a Bengaluru hotel for his stay from January 15 to February 1. “I called up the hotel and they confirmed the booking,” she told Bangalore Mirror. The courier company then called Shrilatha again and asked her to transfer Rs 61,000 as insurance money for the 10,000 pounds found in the packet. She then asked for Rs 86,000 as tax on the foreign currency. After paying all this while, Shrilatha grew suspicious when the woman called again and sought Rs 65,000 for a ‘clearance certificate’ for the parcel. Smelling a rat, she filed a complaint with the cybercrime police only to be told that there was no Dr Lobo from London.If a man asks you to pay for his gifts or his additional baggage, that too through an agent, he’s definitely not good enough for you.These are mostly carried out near banks in crowded market areas such as Upparpet, Cottonpet, Avenue Road, BVK Iyengar road etc. However, there have been cases where a ‘tak-tak’ gang member knocks on the driver’s window. Then the other member knocks on the passenger side and while the driver is busy talking to one, the other disappears with mobile phone, wallet etc.The con-men approach their victims saying the tyre is flat (they would have punctured the tyre themselves). When the victim’s attention is diverted, another man makes away with the money with the first man still helping the victim with the flat tyre. Another tactic is that of alerting you to an ‘engine oil leak’. When the driver gets down to check, another one says the car is emitting smoke and asks everyone else to get out quickly. In the melee, one of the gang members flees with the valuables in the car. In other cases, conmen throw a powder at you and escape with your money. Shinoj, an employee of Muthoot Fincorp, became a victim recently when he withdrew Rs 2.5 lakh from Corporation Bank branch in Rajagopalanagar. Two bike-borne men sprinkled a powder on Shinoj which casued severe itching. Shinoj had placed his bag on the bike’s petrol tank and was about to remove his shirt when an unknown man made away with the bag. Some of the other common attention diversion cases are that of scattering some notes and asking the victim to check if they belong to him. When the victim gets busy picking up the notes, conmen escape with his valuables.Be aware of your surroundings when withdrawing money from the bank. Take somebody along if withdrawing large sums. Better still, transfer money onlineThese have been around for some years and yet people fall for them.There are hundreds of job portals which crooks pore over and contact the jobseeker. They say that they are calling from consultancy firms and would help them get jobs with multinational firms in Bengaluru. The moment the jobseeker responds positively, he/she is asked to deposit a ‘facilitation fee’. They convince the jobseeker that they would facilitate a backdoor entry for them into the firm of their choice. Online crooks also ask job seekers to transfer money online for training, induction and orientation after which there are no jobs and the number goes dead.Nobody gives you a job after taking money from you. It only happens sometimes in the government where top officials pay bribes to get a posting of their choiceScamsters hook people with messages like ‘looking for love?’ or ‘Upset?’ and reel them in once somebody responds. After all, life in a Metro can get tough and lonely at times.One gets a text message or an email stating he/she can find male/female dating partners in their locality; a link or a phone number in the message sets the stage for the scam. Once a person responds to either the link or the number, a caller asks him/her if he/she would like to meet members of the opposite sex in the area. The person is then asked to join a club upon payment of a membership fee. Once the fee is paid, the phone calls start. Many women call the victim (it’s usually the men who fall for the sex scam) offering services. When the man calls back any of them, he goes through a series of. A 46-year-old married software consultant was duped of over Rs 4 lakh after he received a text message on his phone asking if he would like to date or make friends with beautiful women in Bengaluru. Enamoured by pictures of beautiful women and excited about meeting them at hotels which were fixed at rendezvous points, the man readily paid at each stage only to realise that he was only being conned.Do you really need us to tell you that? Seriously?Fraudsters call up people telling them that they are representatives from a popular TV show, Kaun Banega Crorepati. The caller then tells the person that he/she has won a sum amounting to lakhs in a lucky draw at KBC. To claim that money, the caller asks the victim to transfer some money for the tax to be paid to the government. Once they get the first payment, the conmen keep looking for excuses to pilfer more from the victim’s account. A 56-year-old teacher recently lost Rs 12.25 lakh after a fraudster told her that she had won Rs 30 lakh in a lucky draw. She kept losing money and was finally told after a month that she was one of the finalists to a prize pot Rs 1 crore. The con started in August and it only in October that she realised that she had been conned.If you haven’t applied for a lucky draw, how can anybody give you lakhs of rupees?As lakhs and lakhs of transactions happen online especially with digital wallets, there is competition between digital wallet firms who give offers for their customers mostly cashback offers.Online crooks randomly send text messages with links to numerous telephone numbers stating that the customers would get a cashback if they recharge their mobiles online using the links, or by asking you to pay for anything topical such as FasTags, or if you buy something online etc.Do not share OTPs, card details or anything that conmenCybercrooks affix an extra device (card reader) near the card slot, and when one swipes his/her card, both the card reader and the ATM machine read the card details. The details are stored in a microchip inside the card reader. A pin-hole camera records the PIN number that you key in. Later, the crooks remove the device and transfer all the data which is enough to siphon off money from the bank accounts. A few of the crooks, with the available data, even clone cards and use them.Look for any suspicious gadget before inserting your card. Avoid visiting the ATM in remote places at odd hours.*****A search hit on Google for any company’s customer care helpline will yield results, but one has to ensure if it’s the correct official customer care helpline. Usually genuine customer care helplines will be available on the firm’s official website and taking one randomly from Google might lead you to online crooks.