A 48-year-old IRS officer with the Income Tax Department fell victim to an online reward points fraud, losing Rs 48,902. Nishi Padma, the victim, reported the incident to the Central Division Cyber Crime Police, leading to the registration of a case under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
According to Padma's complaint, she received a message from an unknown number claiming that the reward points from her bank were about to expire. The message urged her to click a link and fill in her details to claim the reward promptly. Trusting the message, Padma followed the instructions and entered the OTP she received into the form on the link provided.
Moments later, she received a notification stating that money had been debited from her savings bank account. Attempting to contact the sender of the link proved futile as the number was unreachable.
Realizing she had been deceived, Padma promptly approached the police and lodged a complaint, providing them with the number from which she received the fraudulent message.
The Cyber Crime Police are now actively working to trace the perpetrator using the provided mobile number and to recover the funds transferred to various bank accounts.
Commenting on the incident, a senior cyber crime police official highlighted the prevalence of such online frauds despite repeated warnings and awareness campaigns by banks and law enforcement agencies. The official urged the public to exercise caution and refrain from engaging with unknown numbers or clicking on links from unfamiliar sources to avoid falling victim to similar scams in the future.
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