A 40-year-old woman from Southwest Delhi allegedly lost Rs 90,000 after being lured by fraudsters in a 'Buy One Thali, Get Another Free' scam. Savita Sharma who works as a senior executive in a bank while narrating the incident to the police said that she got to know about this offer through one of her relatives. After following all the suggested steps to get the offer, Rs 90,000 got deducted from her bank account. An FIR into the matter has been lodged at the Cyber Police Station, reported news agency PTI.
Sharma visited the recommended site on November 27, 2022, and made a call on the number provided on it to make an enquiry regarding the deal. She didn't get any response upon calling, however, after the call got over, she received a call back from a person who informed her about the Sagar Ratna's (popular restaurant chain) offer. While talking to PTI, Sharma said, “The caller shared a link and asked me to download an application to avail the offer. He also sent the user ID and password to access the app. He told me that if I want to get the offer, I will have to register on this app first."
She added, “I clicked on the link and the app was downloaded. Then I entered the user ID and password. The moment I did it, I lost control of my phone. It was hacked and then I received a message that Rs 40,000 was debited from my account." Just after a few seconds, she received another message which said that Rs 50,000 were deducted from her account.
After Rs 90,000 got deducted from her account, she immediately blocked the card. While talking about not sharing any banking details with the caller she said, “It was very surprising for me that the money went from my credit card to my Paytm account and then moved out to the fraudster’s account. I never shared any of these details with the caller.”
Sharma finally lodged an FIR into the matter on May 2, following which Cybe cell initiated a probe into the matter.
Similar cases of fraud have been reported in several cities where people lost thousands to even lakhs of rupees. A cybercrime investigator while talking to PTI said, “Cyber criminals are devising new ways to defraud people. People should not click on any link or app which comes from unknown or unidentified sources."