‘Cheat Code’: From Jobs to Romance, Here Are The Top Online Scams Prevalent in India And Ways to Stay Safe

With huge digitisation, on-line fraud instances are on the rise in India. Not solely by calls but additionally utilizing new methods, scammers at the moment are increasing their attain to messaging providers like WhatsApp in an effort to con victims to fulfil their felony agenda.

Officials within the division of telecommunications mentioned that the nation has been seeing a surge in telephonic and on-line scams because the peak days of the Covid-19 pandemic. But scammers additionally maintain adopting modern methods to steal cash from victims. For occasion, AI voice cloning scams have created a buzz in current days.

Since a big variety of Indians fall into the entice of those criminals, it’s turning into extra important to make them conscious of the pitfalls, say observers. So, listed here are a few of the most typical on-line and telephonic scams prevalent in India:

Fake job scams

Scammers usually generate bogus job commercials on employment websites or social media. The job postings are ceaselessly for extremely profitable positions with much less expertise. The fraudsters will get in contact with folks after they apply for the roles and demand cash for additional progress.

In some instances, posing as representatives of employment businesses, scammers contact folks and promise to help them to find everlasting, part-time, or work-from-home jobs. They ceaselessly demand fee for his or her providers and disappear as soon as they obtain the cash.

A Delhi girl misplaced about Rs 9 lakh to a faux job provide rip-off after the fraudster requested her to pay the so-called processing charge to safe a content material author place.

Fake authorities grants or schemes

Scammers pose as authorities officers and provide folks grants or new schemes. The fraudsters usually use social media, emails, calls, or textual content messages to focus on their victims. Once they efficiently achieve a sufferer’s belief, they ask for private data or cash to “course of” the grant.

Recently, the Press Information Bureau issued a fact-check warning against a fake government scheme that is circulating online. The bogus post claims that the government is offering free laptops to students and unemployed youth. PIB has advised people to beware of such fake schemes and not share their personal information with anyone who claims to be from the government.

Fake parcel agency scams

Cheats will send text messages or emails that appear to be from a courier service such as DHL or FedEx. The messages or emails will say that the recipients have packages waiting for them, but that they need to pay a fee to have them delivered. They may also create fake tracking websites that look like real ones or call while pretending to be customer service representatives.

One such case involved a Mumbai resident who received a scam call from a fake FedEx customer care operator and Mumbai police officials.

In another case, the family of a retired Indian Army brigadier was cheated out of Rs 4.47 crore by fraudsters who posed as FedEx officials.

Fake law enforcement scams

Scammers pretend to be government or police officers and ask for victims’ Aadhaar, ATM, and PAN card details. The fraudsters may say that the victim owes money, or they are investigating a case and the victim’s details are required, or ask to pay a fine.

Recently, people reported receiving calls from so-called Delhi police officers who were asking for such information.

Fake romance scams

Con artists will create fake profiles on dating websites or apps, using stolen photos, made-up names and information to pose as someone they’re not and contact people to build a relationship.

After building trust, the scammers frequently employ a method known as “love bombing”. This entails giving victims undivided consideration, items, and reward to make them really feel particular so that cash might be coaxed out of them simply.

According to a report by Norton, Indian customers misplaced a median of Rs 7,966 because of on-line courting scams in 2022. The report additionally discovered that just about three out of 4 victims suffered monetary losses.

Apart from these 5 scams, there are a number of extra regarding points seen throughout the nation together with phishing scams, tech help scams, and WhatsApp rip-off calls. Additionally, some have mentioned that tricksters have known as them up, claiming to be a buddy, neighbour, or somebody their dad and mom know, looking for fast on-line transactions.

As per the studies, UPI fee request can also be a brand new addition to this scamming saga during which fraudsters ship cash to a sufferer after which name them to say it was a mistake. When victims repay the cash, malware infects their units and offers scammers entry to their financial institution and KYC particulars.

However, there are a number of methods to keep protected from any of those scams:

• Be suspicious of any unknown calls, messages, or emails.
• Never click on hyperlinks in emails or texts that you simply get from unknown senders.
• Never present personal data to a stranger, together with your checking account quantity, Aadhaar, or OTP.
• Report it as quickly as you may to the police or the cybercrime cell should you consider you will have been a sufferer of fraud.