A 48-year-old IRS officer with the Income Tax Department fell victim to an online reward points fraud, resulting in a loss of Rs 48,902. The victim, Nishi Padma, reported the incident to the Central Division Cyber Crime Police, leading to the registration of a case under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
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Under the complaint of Padma, she received a message from an unknown number claiming that the reward points from her bank had lapsed shortly. As per the message it seeks to click a link and fill in her information to claim the reward. Padma followed the steps and entered the OTP she obtained into the form on the furnished link.
After that on her phone, a debited message of money from her savings bank account was prompted. Subsequently, the number was unreachable when she tried contacting the sender of the link. After learning that she had been fooled, approached the police and filed a complaint, furnishing them with the number from which she obtained the bogus message.
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To trace the perpetrator the Cyber Crime Police are now actively working via the furnished mobile number and to recover the funds transferred to distinct bank accounts. Remarking on the case, a senior cyber crime police official emphasized the prevalence of these online frauds even after furnished warnings and awareness campaigns through the banks and law enforcement agencies.
Before the public, the official requested to practice caution and avoid unknown numbers or prevent tapping on unknown links to refrain the falling victim to identical scams in the future.
