Police Investigate Scam After Official Falls Victim to Phishing Scheme

Mumbai, 18th April 2024: Police are actively searching for an unidentified scammer using a new tactic to deceive victims. A recent victim, an official from the Central Home Ministry, ordered a product online but found it unsatisfactory upon delivery. After expressing his disappointment on X (formerly Twitter), a scammer pretended to assist him but instead led him to a phishing link, resulting in unauthorized credit card charges.

According to police reports, the victim resides in Bhiwandi and placed an online order for a cooler on March 13, paying with his credit card. When the cooler did not meet his expectations, he filed a complaint through the e-commerce company’s app. After his complaint was ignored, he took his grievance to the company’s Twitter account on April 11.

Shortly after, an unknown person called him, claiming to be a customer executive from the e-commerce company. This person provided the victim with a phishing link, asking him to place an order through it.

Upon following the instructions, the victim received five transaction alerts, revealing that Rs 79,000 had been withdrawn from his credit card. Realizing he had been scammed, the victim filed a police report last week.

The police have registered a case under the Indian Penal Code sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), as well as sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by impersonation using a computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.