Cyber crime: Online classified ads' portals, sites for fraud

Hyderabad: As the country goes digital with determination, opting for online payment rather than cash transactions, fraudsters are becoming quite adept at hoodwinking the online customer.

Platforms like OLX and Quikr are being used to target the victims and cheat them on the pretext of making a deal. Once the party wires the amount, they find the seller’s phone switched off and the seller vanishes into thin air.

According to a Cyber Crime official, at least one such case was reported every month in this year. This is the newest trend, said Mr Avinash Mohanty, deputy commissioner of police, detective department, cyber crime.

“There is a trend we have noticed where the fraudster absconds once the money is wired into his bank account. We have been getting complaints in the last few months from a cross-section of people in the city. These victims deposit the money in the account numbers provided by the scamsters. They realised that they were cheated only after losing their money.”

The scamsters either make the proposed customer deposit the money or send a defective piece. Previously, the offenders used to call the buyer to a secluded area where he was assaulted and looted. It is only lately that they have started demanding that the customers transfer the money before delivery. 

A 28-year-old private employee from the city was booked by the Marketing Intelligence Team recently for duping a man by posting an online advertisement for a phone sale. The accused, S. Satya Kishore, resident of Medak, had put up a mobile for sale and when a buyer agreed to pay after negotiations and made an online payment, the seller just switched off his number. 

The cyber crime officials are actively taking up cases and deputing teams to nab the offenders who scam the unsuspecting victims. Most of the victims who fall prey to such scams are well educated, the police said.

Sites say no role; stolen goods can be sold too
Scamsters from different cities of India register themselves as residents of Hyderabad and cheat gullible customers. 

Once cheated, the hapless customer writes to the website management, but nothing really happens after that as no site runs credibility checks of the sellers before allowing them to post. Several complaints can be seen posted on the online forum where they narrate their story and warn others.

One such reply from the website was, “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to you and understand your monetary loss. OLX does not participate or interfere in the negotiations or transaction between buyers and sellers. We urge users to make payment only after reviewing the ad carefully.”  

“The online platform often becomes one of the ways for petty crime offenders to sell off their stolen gadgets”, said a senior police personnel. 

One complaint in the forum read, “I recently got an iPhone 6s Plus from a seller at Hyderabad for Rs 36000. It worked absolutely fine. One fine day, I got a call from a local police station saying that the mobile was a stolen one and I had to return the phone to the person who had filed the complaint. I did not have any other way to track that person, the seller, except the one phone number that he had given me. I want some help.” Many complaints go unnoticed.

Cyber crime police warn the public not to fall prey to these scamsters and not to transfer money without checking the seller’s legitimacy.