An elderly person from Pune wanted to transfer money. He was not able to do it and the UPI application showed the server down message. As he was not able to transfer the money he thought of calling the helpline number of the UPI app and searched for the same online. After finding the number, he called up. The person who picked up the call sent him an SMS and asked to download the link in the SMS. After downloading the link, the victim was asked to share the number which was generated. As soon as he shared the number, Rs 11.22 Lakh was deducted from the victim's account in 15 transactions. The victim was made to download the remote access app.

A lady who works at a private company in Gurugram lost Rs 14,250 to online fraudsters while she was surfing the internet. She filed a police complaint stating she had received a link on her phone while browsing on the internet. When she clicked on the link, Rs 5,000 got debited from her savings bank account and within a few minutes, three transactions were made. The police stated that the lady lost Rs14,250 in three transactions within 10 minutes. The victim had not shared her PIN, CVV and one-time password (OTP) with anyone, yet, money was debited from her account.

A 43-year-old woman from Dhankawdi lodged an FIR against a social media acquaintance, who she claimed promised her good returns on investment in foreign exchange and cheated her of nearly Rs 4 lakh. According to the FIR, the suspect took a total of Rs 6.50 lakh in varying amounts between June and September 2018. The complainant claimed she got back only Rs 2.72 lakh from the suspect. In her complaint, the woman stated that the suspect had formed a group on a social media platform, and claimed to run a company that was involved in foreign exchange trading. She joined the group in 2018. The suspect got in touch with her and told her that she would get handsome returns on investment in foreign exchange.

A Thane resident lost more than Rs 1 lakh while transacting on popular payment gateways Paytm and Google Pay. The victim wanted to sell his furniture and posted an ad on Facebook. Two days later he received a call from a person who offered to buy the furniture and wanted to transfer the amount through payment gateways — Paytm and Google Pay. Instead of sending money, the fraudster requests money from the victim. The Fraudster requested for money on Paytm instead of sending it to the victim. Later scamster agreed to refund the money via Google Pay claiming that the transaction was a mistake. The scammer requested the same amount again on Google Pay and the victim lost money again.

Unidentified fraudsters withdrew Rs 75,000 from Nagpur BJP's leader's bank account after making him download some mobile apps and share confidential information, the police said. Chandan Tulsigiri Goswami (53), media-in-charge of the city BJP, said in his complaint that he had taken a loan of Rs 4.40 lakh from Bajaj Finance. After paying off the loan, he asked the company to refund him Rs 10,000 deducted on account of insurance. On September 12 last year, a man posing as an officer of Bajaj Finance called him and asked him to download `AnyDesk' mobile app to get back his money. Goswami installed it and also downloaded MobiKwik app and sent five rupees to the caller through the app, as per the instructions. Within minutes, Rs 75,000 were withdrawn from his account, he found.

Six people in Maharashtra's Thane city have been duped of Rs 5.04 lakh allegedly from persons posing as Paytm employees. One of the complainants told the police that on December 29, he got a call from a person, who claimed to be from the Paytm team and asked him to update his KYC. The caller asked the complainant to download the 'Quick Support' app on his mobile phone and make a payment of Rs 10 on it for updating the KYC. He also asked the complainant to share his Aadhaar and PAN numbers, which the victim did. The complainant then got several messages over the next two days of withdrawals collectively worth Rs 1.2 lakh from his bank account in the denominations of Rs 9,999, Rs 4,999 and Rs 2,999. The six victims were allegedly duped of Rs 5.04 lakh by fraudsters using similar modus operandi.

A 50-year-old Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer was cheated of Rs 60,000 by an online fraudster. The victim had received a message on his mobile phone, stating that his bank account has been temporarily suspended. The victim told police that a fraudster, following the message, got access to his mobile number, Aadhaar number, and other details. He further said that finally, the fraudster linked a Paytm account to his Aadhar and mobile number. Following this, the fraudster withdrew a total of Rs 60,000 in three transactions of Rs 48,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 2,000 from his State Bank of India (SBI) account.

Twenty-one-year-old Chetan Chabra had no clue that his friends were sending money to a bank account assuming that it belongs to him. He got to know about it when one of his friends called him over phone and asked if he has received the money or not. A cyber fraud made a fake account of Chetan on social media platform Instagram and sent messages to his friends seeking money to address an exigency. Two of his friends fell in the trap and transferred Rs 3000 each to a bank account in Dhanbad. Now, the fake Instagram account has been deleted and cyber fraud is traceless. The Cyber Cell of Jharkhand police in Ranchi has witnessed a sudden surge in similar fraud cases in the recent past

Falling for an offer to sell herbal medicine by a fake international company, a businessman from Bengaluru lost Rs 1.4 crore he paid to fraudster he met on the internet. The fraudster had come into contact with the accused Scott Coffy through LinkedIn. On request from the accused to share the business details, he shared his email and received a proposal offering him a position of being a vendor with Bright Life pharmaceuticals to sell herbal medicines for cancer research. He later received a mail from another accused Jordon that he had been appointed as a vendor. On October 9, the accused asked him to contact Sunita Sharma to collect the herbal medicines. Muralidhara spoke to Sunita and sent an email. The accused asked him to wire Rs 1.48 crore to four accounts in three banks. The money, they said, was for the purchase of the medicines. But the accused were not reachable after receiving the money.

A 25-year-old woman got cheated of Rs 2 lakh on the pretext of offering a job in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The victim, Lakshmi, said she had uploaded her resume on a job portal on November 8 and the next day she received a call from a man posing as a job consultant. According to a report in Times of India, the man demanded money from Lakshmi towards completing various formalities for the job requirement. An Indian Institute of Science (IISc) scholar was duped earlier this week when online cheats offered him a job in Canada and extorted Rs 3.7 lakh from him.

An 84-year-old man from was cheated of Rs 17 lakh by fraudsters after collecting his user id and password, on the pretext of verifying his KYC details. The victim got a call from a person who claimed as an official from the bank. The person on the call asked the victim to reveal his bank details to update his KYC information. First, he refused saying he would personally go to the bank and do it. But, the caller told that this is a special service introduced to help elderly people. While the fraudster was still on the call the victim received 2 OTP's which he shared with the caller. The call nearly lasted for 90 minutes. The next day when he checked his bank account he got to know that Rs 17 lakh was deducted.

A resident of Mumbai lost Rs 6 lakh to a fraudster who asked him to share his OTP for the online transactions under the pretext of selling him an SUV. The accused who was posing as a CRPF personnel had posted an advertisement on a popular portal to sell an SUV. When the victim contacted the accused, the latter sent him his photographs in uniform and an "identity card" to gain his trust. The fraudster then asked the victim to send Rs 100 to his Paytm account. After some time he called up the victim and asked him to share the OTP for the transaction saying that there was some mistake in the transfer of money. As soon as OTP was shared Rs 6 lakh was debited from his bank account.

A 65-year-old man from Mumbai was cheated of Rs 74 Lakhs, after fraudsters made him take up membership of a dating site. The victim was offered membership of Locanto Dating Services and Speed dating and claimed that they offer girls for dates at a location chosen by the member. After taking up the membership, he wanted to cancel it. When he called up to make a cancellation, he was asked for a huge cancellation fee. Fraudsters demanded that he pay up to avoid landing in a legal mess. They made the victim transfer Rs 73.5 Lakhs to several accounts. The victim agreed to the transfer, fearing he would be defamed.

A businessman lost Rs 50 Lakh from his bank account to SIM Swap Fraud as fraudsters replicated his SIM card and used it to authenticate online money transfers to 28 accounts. The victim had a bank account in a well-known bank and was using the phone number issued by a prominent telecom operator. The fraudster somehow managed to get a new SIM card with the same number from this telecom operator. When the new SIM card was availed with the same number, the SIM card which the victim had got deactivated and OTPs were sent to the new SIM card. Using the OTP sent to the new SIM card, fraudsters transferred Rs 50 Lakh from the victim's bank account through 28 transactions.

A 68-year-old woman from Bengaluru lost Rs 1.25 Lakhs which she had saved for the treatment of her husband who was suffering from a chronic ailment. The woman received a call from a person who claimed to be an executive of a nationalized bank where she had two accounts. The caller told her that the debit cards of both her bank accounts must be renewed. When the woman said that she has already got them updated, the caller stated that it was compulsory and asked her to give details of both the accounts. After she gave her bank details, Rs 75,000 was debited from one account and Rs 50,000 from another. When she asked the bank to stop payments, the bank refused, stating she should not have shared her bank details.