Hyderabad: As predicted by cyber crime experts, there is already a spurt in online fraudulent money transactions in the city with five to six cases being registered every day over the past two weeks.
Scamsters are exploiting e-wallets, which are offered as one of the means of digital transactions. They call people pretending to be bank managers and ask for their card details on the pretext of “upgrading” their cards for easier cash flow in the post-demonetisation period.
Unlike earlier offences, the gangs are using e-wallets like Citrus Wallet, M-Pesa, Airtel Money, PayTM and SBI Buddy to park their looted cash before either transferring it or spending it on goods. Among the victims, many are new users. There are also educated persons who have lost cash.
“This is the most frequent complaint received by the cyber crime police station in the city. Scamsters find invoking demonetisation to be the easiest way to convince and cheat people,” said a senior cyber crime official from Cyberabad.
The method of operation is old, but it sports a new twist to misuse the e-wallet.
“The scamster calls up the victim stating that he is the manager of the bank where the victim has an account. He convinces the target that because of demonetisation the bank transaction system had been hit and his debit or credit cards should be upgraded. He would then extract information like, name, card number, CVV number, and even the One Time Password (OTP), while simultaneously transferring the cash to e-wallets from the victim’s account,” said Mr Mohammed Riyazuddin, cyber crime inspector.
“For OTP, the scamster uses the word ‘confirmation code’. “Though the SMS clearly states that it is an OTP and should not be shared with anybody, the victims do not have patience to read the full message and give away the number,” he said.
