Police warn against cyber fraudsters on the prowl

LUCKNOW: Police have sounded an alert against a gang of cybercriminals involved in cheating shopkeepers on the pretext of making payment through e-wallets.

Cops said the gang was on the prowl in the state capital for the past one week.

They have warned shopkeepers to stay alert as the fraudsters ask people to click on the link shared on WhatsApp number through which they deduct the amount from bank accounts.

A senior police official here said the alert was issued after some similar cases were reported from different parts of the city. “Only one shopkeeper has so far turned up to register a complaint in Indira Nagar after he fell victim to a fraud at his grocery store two days ago but at least three more similar incidents have happened on the same pattern. The other shopkeepers did not formally report the matter to police in another three incidents as the amount was very little,” he said.

In the alert issued by the cyber cell, the police officials said that a group of two or three people was moving in the city in a blue hatchback car with a Delhi registration plate. They said the gang members entered provision stores and supermarkets posing as general customers.

“After collecting products worth over several thousand, they asked shopkeepers if they could make payment through e-wallet and then told them to click a link shared on their WhatsApp number for money transfer. The money from the shopkeepers’ account got debited instead of getting credited and the victim was not even able to detect it as a fake message of amount credit was sent to them,” the cyber cell officer said while explaining the gang’s modus operandi.

The official said the gang members were apparently using some advanced mobile application to hack another mobile phone handset by sending links. He said the WhatsApp number through which the link was shared with the shopkeepers are also not displayed during money transaction. He said the cyber cell had already formed a devoted team to trace the gang and avert any further incidents in the city.