Woman calls ‘customer care’, loses Rs 75k

Luckily for the teacher, she was able to get the money back, thanks to a cybercrime team who acted upon her quick plaint

A teacher who contacted what she believed was the customer care of a mobile phone company after finding the number through Google search lost Rs 74,999 to scamsters. Luckily for her, she was able to get the money back, thanks to a cybercrime team who contacted the digital wallet to which the siphoned off money was transferred.

It all started with the teacher trying to recharge her colleague’s phone using her Airtel app. As there was no update on recharge, she decided to contact the customer care. Instead of going to the company’s website for the number, she searched on Google and dialled a number shown there.

The “executive” at the other end asked her to download an app and do a test recharge with just Rs 10 to get the refund. As soon as she followed the instruction, the fraudsters withdrew money in two tranches of Rs 49,000 and Rs 25,000. Only then did she realise that she has been taken for a ride.

“She immediately lodged a complaint with Adyar cybercrime unit and we found that the money has been moved to a digi-wallet. We contacted the digi-wallet and they agreed to refund Rs 69750,” said Adyar Deputy Commissioner V Vikraman.

According to the officer, she was lucky that the money was not moved and spent before it could be retrieved. “We could retrieve the money because the victim lodged the complaint immediately after the incident without wasting time,” he added noted.

Vikraman added that people should not search the internet for customer care contact numbers. “Google results are based on an algorithm; it may not provide the official number. It is always better to go to the website of the company to get the customer care number,” advised the DC.