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Kochi: Ernakulam Rural Police have issued a warning against online fraud. The Rural Police said cases were being reported of scammers making fake loan offers online and raising the credit limit to duped customers. Calls on behalf of banks to steal money using OTP are also on the rise, police said.
“The Rural Cyber Police Station receives several complaints from victims who have lost colossal sums by giving in to tempting offers made by racketeers based in northern India. Many scams take place where scammers create an identical Facebook profile to a person to later target that person’s friends. After befriending his friends using this fake profile, the scammer asks them for cash loans,” a rural police officer said.
Rural Police said another mode of conducting such scams was blackmail into befriending someone online to such an extent that they would share private details with the scammer. Rural SP K Karthick said maintaining high vigilance in the cyber world was essential. “It is ideal for social media users to use all these security features provided by the platform. Profile lock is a good habit. If any of your friends send a message on social media asking for loans in cash, confirm the request directly with the relevant person before transferring money,” the police said.
Police said the scammers even send physical scratch-and-win cards to victims to gain their trust. “Scratch and win cards are sent out saying it was a reward for shopping on e-commerce sites. In such a case, a person ‘won’ Rs 25 lakh through a such card but ended up losing up to Rs 80 lakh in processing fees,” an officer said.
“The Rural Cyber Police Station receives several complaints from victims who have lost colossal sums by giving in to tempting offers made by racketeers based in northern India. Many scams take place where scammers create an identical Facebook profile to a person to later target that person’s friends. After befriending his friends using this fake profile, the scammer asks them for cash loans,” a rural police officer said.
Rural Police said another mode of conducting such scams was blackmail into befriending someone online to such an extent that they would share private details with the scammer. Rural SP K Karthick said maintaining high vigilance in the cyber world was essential. “It is ideal for social media users to use all these security features provided by the platform. Profile lock is a good habit. If any of your friends send a message on social media asking for loans in cash, confirm the request directly with the relevant person before transferring money,” the police said.
Police said the scammers even send physical scratch-and-win cards to victims to gain their trust. “Scratch and win cards are sent out saying it was a reward for shopping on e-commerce sites. In such a case, a person ‘won’ Rs 25 lakh through a such card but ended up losing up to Rs 80 lakh in processing fees,” an officer said.
