LUCKNOW: Taking inspiration from the popular web series 'Jamtara', cyber thugs in Lucknow are now duping innocents by pretending to be defence personnel.
Last week, a retired bank manager Krishnanand Gupta, who had given an ad seeking tenants for his house, was duped of Rs 1.24 lakhs by a miscreant posing as an army captain.
In another case, a businessman in Lucknow's PGI locality was duped of Rs 15,000 by a man posing as army officer on Sunday.
The businessman had also given an ad for selling his double bed.
According to police reports, at least seven cases have been reported from the city in the last 20 days where people were duped by miscreants posing as army men or from the paramilitary forces.
The cyber cell is also getting one such complaint daily.
SP, cyber cell, Triveni Singh said that fraudsters scan advertisements and zero in on their targets and then they gain the people's confidence by introducing themselves as army personnel.
"People usually trust a man who introduces himself as an army man or from paramilitary forces. To appear genuine, the miscreants give a fake badge number, battalion's name, place of posting, photo in army uniform and identity card," the SP said.
He explained that scammers target those who float advertisements of second-hand bikes, cars, gadgets and things of daily usage on social media and sale and purchase websites.
The SP further added that while taking payment, they dupe through Quick Response (QR) codes which redirect victims to malicious sites that steal login and financial information.
Singh said that people should not share their confidential details with such callers and refrain from clicking suspicious links.