In another episode of cybercrime, a female DLF Phase-5 resident was allegedly tricked into $1 lakh According to PTI, the victim, Madhvi Dutta, received a message on his mobile phone on 21 January saying, “Dear user, your HDFC account will be closed today, please click here on the link, your PAN card number from a mobile phone number”.
In her complaint to police, Dutta said she clicked on the link, which took her to a web page asking her to provide details. She then received an OTP on her mobile number.
“As soon as I entered the OTP, $1 lakh was deducted from my account. I called the 1930 cyber helpline several times but was not connected and eventually moved to the website and filed the complaint,” Gupta said in his online complaint.
Following his complaint, an FIR was registered against unknown fraudsters in sections 419 (phishing trap) and 420 (cheating) of IPC at Cyber Crime, East Police Station on Friday.
“An FIR has been registered and an investigation is underway,” said ASI Manoj Kumar, the investigating officer.
This is one of many episodes where an innocent citizen has been the victim of cyber fraud. It is always advisable to exercise caution when clicking on any link you receive via SMS, email or even WhatsApp. These links could easily be a trap to trick you into draining your bank accounts.
One of the operational keys to how these scams occur is that cybercriminals will send a message to create urgency. These messages may be related to the deactivation of the service or the closure of the bank account due to the lack of documents or any other document.
Always remember not to share your details like account number, ATM PIN and OTP with others. Also, please refrain from updating your account details over the Internet. If possible, visit the bank office for this.