Senior resident recently lost 17K in a fraction of a second in yet another cyber fraud. This senior citizen lady was trying to book a cab for herself from Blu Smart app. Instead of receiving a booking confirmation she received a call back and ignorantly she mentioned that she is a senior citizen and needs a big car the next morning.
The caller on the other end instructed her to download another app (Remote Desktop) to help her book a cab. Since this was her first time to book a cab independently she got carried away and blindly followed the instructions being given by the fraudster all the way till a big amount got deducted from her paytm account.
The caller was on the phone for almost two hours with her, instructing her to credit ¹ 10/- initially, it seems he shared her screen as he could see everything on her phone. When she agreed to transfer ¹ 10 right away ¹ 17,200/- were debited from her account. When she saw the debit, she became alert and panicked. He kept asking her to share yet another OTP most likely linked with her savings account. It was at this point she realised that she is a victim of cyber fraud and has lost her money.
In panic she contacted a few residents. When she contacted me, I advised her to lodge a complaint with customer care Paytm, and with 1930 Cyber Crime helpline.
Paytm helpline was unreachable. A visit to the police station was not of much help as they too advised to lodge a complaint with Cyber Cell at Horizon One. She visited her bank too to make sure her account was safe. Bank refused to take any responsibility for Paytm wallet. Cyber cell, took all the details and lodged a complaint.
In her words, “How vulnerable we can be if we are not aware or alert to various ways fraudsters can attempt and attack in the realm of cybercrime. This was a shocking experience and I felt so helpless to see a click of a finger can get so misleading” The senior citizen has asked to remain anonymous. She shared the number from where she received the call. 8638069230. The app which she was asked to download was RustDesk Remote Desktop.
