Delhi Businessman Got Scammed Of Rs 2.5 Lakh When Shopping Online

As digital devices are increasing their presence in our daily lives, we now have a new term, “digital natives”, which means people that constantly use their digital devices to buy things and deal with money. But along with that, the biggest threat people nowadays face is the phishing scam.

Recently, there have been several threats of this kind discovered and the situation has gotten so serious that RBI (Reverse Bank of India) had to issue an official instruction against such malware. Worse, in the latest incident relating to online shopping scam, a businessman from New Delhi lost Rs 2.5 lakh after a fraudster managed to compromise his phone with malware. To do this, the fraudster sent a text message to the target device, persuading the victim to install the malware on his mobile phone.

In the case of this businessman, he was surfing an e-commerce site, hoping to buy furniture for his office when he was lured to look at an appealing deal on the website which was created by the scammer. According to GadgetsNow report, the businessman immediately contacted the seller who said he was a retired defense officer. The fraudster agreed to sell the products for a much lower price compared with what said in the deal. Next, the fraudster insisted the man pay the earliest so that he would maintain the deal.

Once the pair agreed on the deal, a text message was sent to the victim’s phone, saying ‘Successful money transfer’ or ‘Add UPI money’ along with a link to a website. By clicking on the link attached in the message, the victim granted the fraudster access to his mobile phone. Then, the criminal could get in the victim’s phone and initiate bank transactions.

Not only banking transactions but the fraudster can also access messages and photos on the device. As revealed by the police, the link sent in the text message carried a decoy message, forcing the victim to click on it. However, as a tradition, users should question when they see a deal that’s too good and it’s highly recommended that they do not click on any links sent via messages advertising online shopping deals.