Is every information mainly contact numbers of reputed establishments you source from online search engines genuine? Not really. Unsuspecting callers are getting swindled after calling up fake helplines and contacts which are uploaded by cyber criminals on the platform of popular search engines.
A 75-year-old retired navy officer from Bhayandar learnt it the hard way after he lost more than Rs.1 lakh to the evil designs of cyber fraudsters after he tried finding contact details of a diagnostic laboratory on a search engine to book an appointment to conduct an X-ray test for his son who is suffering from tuberculosis on Thursday.
In his statement to the police, the complainant said that he contacted the number of the laboratory which was listed as a helpline number to facilitate online appointments. The person who received the call, asked the complainant to transfer Rs.5 in a specified digital wallet towards registration fees for the booking. The complainant complied, following which he received a token number confirming the date and time of appointment. However, a day later, he was shocked to learn that Rs. 1.06 lakh had been siphoned off from his bank accounts via five transfer transactions. This despite the fact that he had neither shared his bank account details nor one-time passwords (OTP).
The ex-navy man immediately alerted the police about the fraud. Based on the complaint an offence under section 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating and a case of cyber fraud was registered under sections 66 (C) and 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act was registered at Navghar police station against the cyber crooks.
Further investigations were underway. Stressing upon the need to be careful while dealing with unknown callers/senders and to lodge complaint as soon as possible (Golden Hour), the MBVV police said that people can contact the local police stations or directly approach or call the cybercrime cell on 1930 with an additional option of reporting online frauds through email at www.cybercrime.gov.in.
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