Hyderabad duo defrauded of ₹5 lakh in separate cyber attacks

Two persons, including a woman, from Hyderabad were conned of close to ₹5 lakh in two different cases of cybercrime.

In the first such case, a 36-year-old woman was conned of ₹3.21 lakh in an impersonation fraud. The victim received a WhatsApp video call from a fraudster posing as representative of Mumbai cybercrime department. The fraudster claimed that the victim’s Aadhaar card was being used in various States including Goa, Haryana and Punjab and a Jio Fiber network account was created, which was being used for illegal activities including child-trafficking, pornography and financial fraud.

Further, the criminals placed the victim under digital arrest, informing them that she was also a suspect in a money fraud case. In an attempt to save herself from jail time, the woman transferred ₹3. 21 lakh on the fraudulent accounts shared by the conmen.

OTP trap

In another incident, what looked like a ‘mistaken call’ cost a Hyderabad individual over ₹1.46 lakh. The 42-year-old victim received a call from an unknown number asking about the Ola booking OTP they received on their mobile.

According to the police, the victim informed the scammer that they had not booked an Ola ride and did not share the OTP or any bank or credit card details. On disconnecting the call, ₹1.46 lakh was debited from the victim’s ICICI credit card. Both the cases were booked by the Hyderabad cybercrime police and are currently under investigation.

Published - October 26, 2024 08:40 pm IST