The cyber cell of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday retrieved the money that a man lost as a result of an online fraud, thanks to quick reporting of the crime and immediate action on the part of the officials.
A spokesman said they received a complaint from a resident of Uri area of Baramulla district stating that while trying to cancel an air ticket he lost his entire savings after dialling an Indigo Airlines call centre number that he found while searching on Google and came out to be fake.
“He immediately received a back call and was told that the refund amount could be transferred immediately via Google Pay and for this he would have to download a mobile application called AnyDesk on his cell phone,” said the spokesman.
The victim, according to the spokesman, followed the directions on his phone and whole money in his bank account amounting to Rs 5,45,000 got debited in minutes.
The Financial Fraud Team of Cyber Police Srinagar acted swiftly on this complaint which was received on phone, he said.
“After strenuous efforts, the cyber police team traced out the UPI transaction details which were made by the fraudsters in 14 different transactions amounting to Rs 5,45,000/- (Five Lacs Forty Five Thousand rupees). The fraudsters transferred the said amount through CC Avenue and PayTm Gateways that was further settled to one US based Company Melot Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Matter was taken up with the said merchant about these fraudulent transactions and were successfully made to block the transactions for further use. Thereby an amount of Rs 5,45,000/- (Five Lacs Forty Five Thousand rupees) was recovered and refund process initiated to the complainant source account,” added the spokesman.
Cyber Police Kashmir have received a similar complaint wherein one complainant was duped of Rs 2997/- when he was looking for a customer care number as his Refrigerator got faulty and was made to download the same ANYDESK App on his cell phone. The genuine customer fraudulently lost an amount of Rs 2997/- from his bank account. While taking immediate measures Cyber Police successfully traced and refunded the partial amount to the complainants source account.
There have been several such cases over the past few months wherein the fake customer care representatives ask for the customer bank details on the pretext of helping them or they even share the link of an application which customers are asked to download on their phones to get the refund. These scams happen when the victim opens an online banking app or UPI app on their phones to do a transaction, without knowing that someone is watching through AnyDesk.
General public is advised that AnyDesk application is a remote access desktop software tool which provides a third party control of the user’s device. People should refrain from using such apps or dialling fake helpline or customer care numbers found on Google search engine.