A Woman Lost Rs 1 Lakh After Calling To A Scam Customer Care Number From Google Search

Google Search is convenient when you need to search for restaurants, business or just some information. But Google isn’t a truth engine but a search engine. Therefore, not all information can be trusted. By not being cautious and rely too much on Google, one woman from the Seemapuri area of East Delhi needed to pay the price for this, literally.

The woman tried to get in touch with a customer care employee after here e-wallet made an accidental transaction. So, just like what other people would do, she went on Google to search for a contact number. After having found a number, she called a supposed customer care executive.

Unfortunately, the number which she called was not a real one but a scam number. The woman was totally unaware of this, so she told the supposed customer care executive all her debit card details. The scammer promised her that she will receive a full refund. However, a few minutes later, she received a notification from the bank saying that Rs 1 lakh has been withdrawn from her account.

To justify her action, if we were in the same situation as the woman, we would probably do the same thing. While frantically figure out a problem, it is easy for us to forget to crosscheck the information. And this kind of scam is quite common.

Recently, a scammer modified a Mumbai-based Employee Provident Fund Office (EPFO)’s contact details on Google Maps. After that, he was able to scam some victims after receiving their personal information including their bank accounts.

Another trick of scammers is to imitating banks. This reminded us that we can’t trust a company’s number even though it is on Google Maps. Users are allowed to modify this information so it can be up to date. And scammers can abuse this.

It would be better for users to check the company website first. Another thing to mention is customer will never ask you about your passwords or Aadhaar or PAN number.