The Khandeshwar police have booked an unidentified person after a software engineer was duped of ₹28,000, on the claim that she was receiving money from the PM Cares fund.
The 25-year-old resident of New Panvel, who works with an automobile company, received a call on April 14 from a man who said the PM Cares fund was providing money to people during the lockdown. He said she was eligible to get ₹1,000.
The complainant argued that she had never heard of any such scheme but the caller convinced her that he was calling from Punjab National Bank and they are partnering with the PM Cares scheme. The caller then sent her PhonePe app link. The message said “Hey, please pay me ₹1,000 using this link.” The complainant clicked on it with the belief that the link would fetch her ₹1,000 but instead, the amount was deducted from her account.
“When she told him that the money had been deducted, the caller told her that he had not received any money and sent her another message. In this manner, he sent her 10 links, of which eight were for ₹1,000 and and two of ₹10,000. The complainant clicked them all and lost ₹28,000. After realising she was being conned, she stopped clicking them,” a police officer from Khandeshwar police station said.
Shubham Singh, a cyber expert said, “One should always check the authenticity of a bank account and UPI ID and get proper information from the official gov.in domain website. No NGO or government official will ever call you to donate money.”
Taking advantage of virus
He said because of increased online activity, cyber criminals are actively working to exploit people in the name of COVID-19 with attacks aimed at taking advantage of the situation. “It is important now more than ever to be aware of online scams and threats as they are increasing in volume,” Mr. Singh said.
The accused has been booked under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the IT Act.
