During lockdown Pune doctor lost over 9 lakh in gifting scam

Pune: If a caller is offering a cheaper product or a gift hamper based on your past purchase then it can be a possible scam. Investigation in recent cases has shown that cybercriminals have data of online shoppers and based on their shopping trends they script the attack.

Police suspect cybercriminals are somewhere working hand in glove with leading online shopping portal as they have all the data and information of customers like their phone number, address, card details and also about their shopping list of last six months.

The Case: The latest victim of such attack is a 47-year-old doctor from Pune who lost Rs9.29 lakh to an online gift fraud during the lockdown in July this year.

According to the police, she was targeted after she bought a shoe for Rs 1,499 from a leading e-commerce website.  Soon after making the payment, she got a call from a fraudster who identified himself as an executive with the website. He trapped her by saying that based on her last purchase she is won a gift hamper from the company.

Not realizing that it could be a scam the victim got excited and started following the instructions. The caller asked her to transfer money via net banking towards various charges — GST, insurance and others.  She made multiple transfers totalling Rs9.29 lakh to different bank accounts without verifying the suspects’ credentials, police said.

Once the gang stopped taking her call she realized that she was duped and approached the police.

How It Is Done: “Victim is a doctor and was contacted by the conmen posing as e-commerce employees. They offered her a choice between a laptop, an iPhone and television for the gift. She selected the iPhone, but the caller sought time to deliver it to her as the lockdown was in force then. The caller then convinced her to accept money in return and told her to transfer the fees into their bank account. She believed the caller and transferred money,” said a senior officer.

The gang members called her multiple times and got her to transfer more money by offering various excuses (her transactions failed, the bank’s server was down, technical glitches, etc.).

Police are now trying to get details of transactions and other electronic surveillance to crack the case.

Quick Tips:

1: Always cross-check the authenticity of any lucrative offer and deals.

2: Always check you are purchasing or paying at a branded/trusted website.

3: Do not believe in any scheme or lottery being offered online or on call. Trusted companies never ask money to claim the reward.