Bhubaneswar: With the festive season around the corner and the surge in festival offers by the leading e-commerce websites, the cyber criminals have also come up with new ways to make quick money during the festive season.
These criminals— with the intention to loot money from innocent, gullible customers— have adopted newer and smarter ways to fleece the customers. In a new method adopted by them, the miscreants send the victims printed letters with logos of premier e-commerce websites telling them about huge amounts of prize money they have won.
The miscreants, who easily manage to flaunt the logos of leading e-commerce websites like Flipkart, Amazon, Slop Clues, Snapdeal and others, talk about the prize money the customers have won for being a regular customer. Surprisingly, the customers are getting claims of prize money worth Rs 10 lakh.
The cyber-criminals also draft the letters smartly, print them in colour pages with the brand logos on the top of it, attach some coupons and scratch cards to make it look genuine. However, to save themselves from legal tangles, the cheaters plead the customers not to approach the customer care numbers of the said company.
One of the suspicious letters sent to an online customer from the city read, “Please contact the undersigned number for details. Do not contact the customer care number of the company as that helpline number is only for sales and purchases. The undersigned number is only for prize related matters.”
The miscreants, in their letter, ask for money in advance to get the claimed prize money. “I recently received a letter into this regard. The letter reportedly was giving me Rs 11 lakh as prize money. It however said that for claiming the prize we have to first submit the GST and other tax related charges after contacting the helpline number which was a mobile phone number,” said Archita Sahoo, a resident of Jharpada.
Many citizens in the city have, in the last one month, received such letters. Many frequent online buyers now are suspicious of the delivery boys. Many also believe that people, who have access to data of frequent online buyers, are part of the new cyber crime.
Odisha police said they have also come across similar cases of forgery involving names of popular e-commerce sites. “The cyber criminals keep on changing their modus operandi after their old tricks are exposed. We have come to know about similar cases from the state. The citizens need to understand that no such firm can give away such large amounts of money for free. They should avoid getting duped,” said N Mahata, Inspector-in-Charge of Cybercrime Cell, Odisha Police.
MODUS OPERANDI
-Frequent online shoppers get forged letters from e-commerce firms.
-The forged letters claim mammoth prize money during festive season.
-Such letters are delivered at home by courier boys/postmen.
-Letter appeals customers to not contact customer care for info.
-A mobile number is given as a prize helpline number for contacts.
-GST and other charges are sought in advance to claim the prize money.
-Once the advance is paid, the conman vanishes from the scene.