KOCHI: Yet another Kochi resident has fallen victim to a cyber fraud. The person lost his money after after contacting a fake helpline number of a banking app, that he found on Google. After this, he ended up being an easy target for fraudsters, who swindled Rs 1.35 lakh from the city residents.
The incident happened in April this year. The victim, after facing some issues with the SBI Yono app, decided to reach out to customer care to resolve the matter. He searched for the helpline number on Google, found one, and contacted it.
“A person introducing himself as an SBI (State Bank of India) representative picked up the phone and assured to solve the issue as soon as possible. For this, he directed the victim to install an app named Any Desk on his smartphone. Any Desk is an app through which a third-party individual can access and control other phones or computers,” said a police officer.
Likewise, after the person installed the Any Desk app, the fraudster gained access to the phone contents of the victim. He received all the banking credentials saved in the phone, including OTPs. Later, the fraudster managed to divert money from the account of the victim on various occasions. In total, he swindled `1.35 lakh from the city resident.
After coming to know that he got played, the victim approached the bank authorities for assistance. By that time, the fraudster had managed to withdraw money from the accounts to which the amount was transferred.
Later, the SBI lodged a complaint with the Ernakulam Judicial First Class Magistrate Court seeking an investigation into the incident. The court directed the police to register a case and probe the matter. Subsequently, a case was registered at the Ernakulam Cyber Police station recently.
Authorities have urged the public to remain cautious about such frauds as the incidents related to people falling victim to swindlers who circulate their numbers through Google are rising. Last week an Aluva native lost `2.37 lakh after contacting the fake customer care number of a kitchenware company.
“This year alone, we have registered over 10 such cases. Upon investigation, it was found that all the victims had contacted the number which first appeared on the Google search result. To carry out the fraud, swindlers create fake websites similar to those of companies and financial establishments. So, when the public searches for contact numbers, these fake numbers also appear on the screen. It’s high time that Google takes some action to prevent these bogus websites and their fake contact numbers from appearing in its search results,” the officer added.