Online payment transactions are a fraught exercise. Yes, they can turn into a terrifying ordeal and end up costing innocent people tens of thousands of rupees. This is exactly what happened to this man from Bhondsi.
Sunil Kumar Raghav has become the latest victim of an online scam, and ended up losing a whopping ₹70,000 plus while attempting to settle a non-banking finance company (NBFC) loan that he had taken. Raghav had borrowed ₹5 lakh from the company and was in the process of repaying it through installments.
One big mistake after another
Seeking to resolve the loan, Raghav committed the biggest blunder of them all. Trusting that on Google he would find what he was looking for, the man searched for the company’s customer care number. He contacted a number provided by the result, that purportedly belonged to the NBFC. He initiated a chain of communication and conversed with an executive there who claimed to represent the company.
While the first mistake was to search online for a valid phone number, the next was even worse. Raghav received an email instructing him to deposit ₹70,401 into a specified bank account. Raghav actually complied without even bothering to verify the antecedents of the person he was talking to or to see whether he was actually a company representative or not.
The fraud would have gone undiscovered for a long time were it not for the greed of the fraudsters. They started calling Raghav again demanding further payments and it was then Raghav realized there was something wrong and he finally started verifying certain details.
He also lodged an FIR at the Cyber Crime police station in South Gurugram.
What happened was a shocking incident, but just a bit more care while being online would have ensured a better ending to this story. Here is what people should actually do.
Tips to safeguard against online fraud:
1. Verify: Always verify contact details directly from official sources, rather than relying solely on internet search results. Remember, in today’s digitally connected era, it is quite easy to verify anyone’s credentials in just a few minutes. Failure to do so should mean that no transactions should be made at all.
2. Do not reveal private information: Be cautious when making financial transactions online and if someone asks you for personal information like bank account numbers, OTPs, passwords and usernames, know that they may be fraudsters.
3. Messages from strangers: Be wary of unsolicited emails, calls, or messages. Under no circumstances should you entertain such calls or click on those links.
