Online frauds surge in lockdown, senior citizens prime target
JAIPUR: At least two persons every hour are duped online every day in Jaipur.
According to the city police, a whooping ₹6,43,58,484 was siphoned off from 2,121 people’s accounts in online frauds in the city since April.
Fraudulent mobile applications gaining illegal access to the phone, and scammers mimicking medical health officials to hand over Aadhaar and bank details have been some of the most frequent cases reported in two months.
Additional commissioner of police, crime, Ajay Pal Lamba said that many people have fallen prey to Covid-19 vaccine registration fraud, one of the more recent ways of cheating.
“The cyber gangs posing as medical officers would ask people if they had received their first jab if they responded yes, they would dupe people into handing over Aadhaar and bank account details on the pretext of setting-up registration for the second dose,” he said.
Apart from vaccination, gangs also, prowl digital space for people seeking medicines for their kin battling Covid-19.
Last week, a 34-year-old resident of Ajmer was duped of ₹95,000 by a man who promised to deliver liposomal amphotericin B injections the treatment of the victim’s mother who was suffering from black fungus.
The Jaipur police estimate that 40 people every day call its helpline number to report an online scam. Apart from phishing attacks, there is a flood of fraudulent mobile applications that quickly extract personal log-ins, details of online banking, and history of payments on online shopping apps.
“Most of these fraudulent mobile applications have mushroomed only recently during the lockdown because there is a growing demand for home delivery of milk, groceries, etc. People unaware of perils involving these unverified apps quickly lose money,” Lamba said.
According to Jaipur police, online economic activities have increased due to lockdown, so have the cyber frauds.
“Many people, especially the elderly, who are not attuned to the online transactions fall prey to malicious tricks. This is an alarming case where over 2,000 people have lost ₹6 crore in just two months. We have set up a special helpline where people can report these crimes,” Lamba said.
The Jaipur police said that a senior additional DCP rank officer was on Wednesday assigned the task of leading the investigation into cybercrimes. The Jaipur police said that they are compiling the list of mobile numbers used by gangs to target people, the police will seek to get those mobile numbers blocked.
After cyber scammers duped over 2,000 people of ₹6 crore from in two months in Jaipur, the city police have set up a special helpline to check the menace. “We have set up a helpline number 155260 where people can call to alert us about cyber cheating involving fraudulent transactions. We will try to ensure that the transaction into the scammer’s account is timely stalled,” Lamba said.