Mobile Scam banking fraud

S

solo_wing

Adept
thought I should share this.

one of my relative got scammed .
Got message from electricity company that your bill is pending Rs 25 please pay immediately or your electricity will be cut off.

They got worried as work from home projects were going on and they called them and said we have already paid but the guy on the other side said Rs 25 is still due.
then that person asked to download a app of electricity board and pay from there as only there it will show immediately otherwise it will take day to reflect and might result in power cut.
So they did it and immediately phone got hacked ...money was withdrawn from the banking account and my relative was not able to use their mobile at all. No touch nothing was working.

Will not reveal the amount but pretty decent amount got deducted.

I am sharing this only in hope that people educate their elderly or not so tech savvy people at home on such scams.


Police complains and cybercrime and bank have been informed and investigation is in process.

not expecting any results. Banking and such scams are hardly covered under insurance safety or any kind of police action in India.

only posting for awareness.
 
Some people have a habit of installing random apps from facebook and whatspp links. From where the app was installed ? Was it from playstore ? Phones are very risky because if someone knows our passcode or an app has all permissions then there is no safeguard.
 
powervgx said:
Some people have a habit of installing random apps from facebook and whatspp links. From where the app was installed ? Was it from playstore ? Phones are very risky because if someone knows our passcode or an app has all permissions then there is no safeguard.
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I don't know . that person said we are sending you link just download the app.
Ir0nMerc said:
Lots of red flags.
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Yes.
90% fault of my relative.
taken for a ride.
 
Take your relatives and visit Cyber Crime cell. They will find out where the funds were transferred to and freeze that a/c. Even if you don't recover it, at the very least you will protect others from these scamsters.

solo_wing said:
I am sharing this only in hope that people educate their elderly or not so tech savvy people at home on such scams.
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Forcing everyone to use digital banking is a stupidity on the govt's part. Only redeeming factor is that it might be easier to trace the digital transfers to a linked mobile/Aadhar number
 
solo_wing said:
Yes.
90% fault of my relative.
taken for a ride.
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Fear means you are not thinking. That is what makes the scam work. They do whatever they are told
n1r0 said:
Forcing everyone to use digital banking is a stupidity on the govt's part. Only redeeming factor is that it might be easier to trace the digital transfers to a linked mobile/Aadhar number
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Can't do that in a place like India nor is it needed. Abroad it might become necessary
 
n1r0 said:
Take your relatives and visit Cyber Crime cell. They will find out where the funds were transferred to and freeze that a/c. Even if you don't recover it, at the very least you will protect others from these scamsters.


Forcing everyone to use digital banking is a stupidity on the govt's part. Only redeeming factor is that it might be easier to trace the digital transfers to a linked mobile/Aadhar number
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It has helped also.
India is a country with huge population and many elderly people also.
Any given day there is huge que in banks.
Saves time and unnecessary trouble.

Yes it also brings in new problems.
I wish there was some better security insurance to cover such frauds.

Once my other relative visiting Delhi from abroad got fraud 20k on cc bill and noticed it after few days.

They informed their bank and within 2 weeks the bank paid back the money.
Just one complain. No running around nothing. The bank took all the measures.
 
solo_wing said:
Got message from electricity company that your bill is pending Rs 25 please pay immediately or your electricity will be cut off.

They got worried as work from home projects were going on and they called them and said we have already paid but the guy on the other side said Rs 25 is still due.
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In my experience, they do not disconnect you unless it's at least two months overdue.

How do I know? I tested it.

Rs 25 is a small amount too. Nobody will disconnect for that.
 
blr_p said:
In my experience, they do not disconnect you unless it's at least two months overdue.

How do I know? I tested it.

Rs 25 is not a big deal either too.
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Yes.
It was right during their work and they had to complete the project. It was stupidity on their part like I said but those guys manage to do it at right moment and they can sound very convincing.
Like you said they make you fear and then it just quickly happened.
 
In true caller all these SMS are marked as spam and fraud. Does your relative not use it? I'm seeing these messages come from Bihar etc. Just a few moments of thinking will remove any doubt that these are scams.

Like, first and foremost, no electricity provider will send sms from unknown numbers and will always use their official sms Id.

Second, you can always check your electricity bill online now and pay there if you really have money pending.

I've got such stupid sms lots of times and I just delete them and block the numbers.
 
6pack said:
In true caller all these SMS are marked as spam and fraud. Does your relative not use it? I'm seeing these messages come from Bihar etc. Just a few moments of thinking will remove any doubt that these are scams.

Like, first and foremost, no electricity provider will send sms from unknown numbers and will always use their official sms Id.

Second, you can always check your electricity bill online now and pay there if you really have money pending.

I've got such stupid sms lots of times and I just delete them and block the numbers.
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I know they just manage to get my relative on a bad day.
It could have been worse because when we went to complain to the cybercrime cell there were other too who were there and someone elderly she lost her entire savings.

This is just not posted for electricity scam but to just once again make people aware of related mobile scam. It can happen even without apps.

My ex-manager was sharing story of how some loan sms started coming to her and it started to harassment and started to call her and she never took any loan from them. It was traced to chinese people.

Buying chinese phones is massive risk in itself. the amount of info they have is dangerous enough and almost too easy to pull scams. What a mess! we have created.
powervgx said:
Some people have a habit of installing random apps from facebook and whatspp links. From where the app was installed ? Was it from playstore ? Phones are very risky because if someone knows our passcode or an app has all permissions then there is no safeguard.
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one of my other relative does that.
She is quite an elder person and she has big whatsapp group of families friends distant family friends.
and she use to just clicks whatever they send.
Tried explaining to her ...never listened. would completely fill her mobile memory than ask us to delete it as it would start going slow and hangs etc.

Finally this scam has made her little more aware and says now she has stopped.
 
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solo_wing said:
My ex-manager was sharing story of how some loan sms started coming to her and it started to harassment and started to call her and she never took any loan from them. It was traced to chinese people.
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Most probably someone who has her contact number in their contacts took out a loan and didn't pay it back. Chinese are under the impression that their culture is similar to ours and that we have a culture of shame (like Japanese level where it a person in a family does something bad then entire family feels like they did bad etc). So they send these hired goons to shame the stolen contact numbers since they have no idea who is who. But Indians are shameless. I wonder how much money the Chinese lost.
 
6pack said:
Most probably someone who has her contact number in their contacts took out a loan and didn't pay it back. Chinese are under the impression that their culture is similar to ours and that we have a culture of shame (like Japanese level where it a person in a family does something bad then entire family feels like they did bad etc). So they send these hired goons to shame the stolen contact numbers since they have no idea who is who. But Indians are shameless. I wonder how much money the Chinese lost.
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Don't agree with that Indians are completely shameless. Especially among the middle class.

It maybe not as strong as in Japan . Japanese have a very solid sense of honor and respect.

But many Indians do have sense of respect in society and among relatives .
Some have even committed suicide because of such loan fail repayment and humiliation from banks , relatives or money lenders.

Chinese culture I don't know much but
I find Chinese very untrust worthy and shameless. This opinion though is mostly based on limited understanding about them and mostly based on their Government. Never seen China respecting and honouring even signed treaties.
They can go back on their own words.

So maybe my understanding about them is limited..however my Russian friends have the same opinion too ...infact worse than mine and they have lot more interaction, even doing business deals with them .
 
n1r0 said:
Only redeeming factor is that it might be easier to trace the digital transfers to a linked mobile/Aadhar number
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Actually shopkeepers keep the debit cards of multiple people (along with pin) in exchange for a thank you or a marginal discount. The people give the debit cards because they got bank accounts opened for free, and don't know what to do with the accounts.

And these are mere shopkeepers, the proper scamsters doing this scam can easily take measures to avoid direct detection. Of course detailed investigation can bring out everything.
 
solo_wing said:
Don't agree with that Indians are completely shameless. Especially among the middle class.

It maybe not as strong as in Japan . Japanese have a very solid sense of honor and respect.

But many Indians do have sense of respect in society and among relatives .
Some have even committed suicide because of such loan fail repayment and humiliation from banks , relatives or money lenders.
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They'd be no honour killings otherwise
solo_wing said:
Chinese culture I don't know much but I find Chinese very untrust worthy and shameless. This opinion though is mostly based on limited understanding about them and mostly based on their Government. Never seen China respecting and honouring even signed treaties.
They can go back on their own words.
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There is a difference between the people who are held hostage and their govt.
solo_wing said:
So maybe my understanding about them is limited..however my Russian friends have the same opinion too ...infact worse than mine and they have lot more interaction, even doing business deals with them .
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This came out in 2014 maybe they would have seen it.
 
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