Cops on alert as cyber criminals evolve newer ways to dupe people
Cyber fraudsters now lure people to download APK files for cash transfers, duping victims of lakhs through fake job offers and share trading.譌Recent cyber frauds registered at cyber police station involved duping victims of over ₹5 crores. Victims include government officials and retired employees.
allahabad.htdesk@hindustantimes.com
Cyber fraudsters have changed their modus operandi after bank customers became aware of usual methods of fraud used by them and even stopped sharing OTP.
The cyber conmen are now luring people to download and install APK files. The people are being lured through job offers from home, investments, online games etc to download APK files which are remotely used for transferring cash.
APK files are Android Package Kit. It’s a file format used by Android to install and distribute apps across its ecosystem.
Cyber cops said that in most recent cyber frauds, conmen lured bank customers of hefty profits through share trading and jobs from home offers. The conmen are duping people of several lakhs while providing some profits initially.
In 15 cases of cyber frauds recently registered at cyber police station, fraudsters have duped cash worth over ₹5 crores through offers of investment in share trading and jobs from home etc.
Cyber cell officials have urged people during recent awareness drive to stop downloading APK files as they had earlier stopped sharing OTPs.
“Cyber conmen are now duping people in four stages. At first, they send offers of income from home through messages sent through WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, telegram. They add interested people in their WhatsApp or telegram groups. In the second stage, they give the task of giving likes on social media or rating the applications. To influence people, they give ₹1000 to ₹4000 and win their confidence. In the third stage, they provide information to their targets about investment and add them to different trading websites. To add them to websites, conmen send links of APK files and lure their targets to download it. While offering heavy returns, the conmen take investments from people. In the fourth stage, they hold the investment. People may check the balance online but could not cash it as the APK file gets expired,” said Rajiv Kumar Tiwari, in-charge, cyber police station.
Tiwari said that people must avoid downloading this APK file.
Recent victims of cyber frauds and the amount defrauded
Kokoli Das of George Town: ₹1.48 crores
Retired CMO Alok Verma: ₹1.26 crores
Teacher Anubhav Srivastava: ₹65 lakh
Nishant Singh: ₹28 lakh
Government officer Omkar Maurya: ₹12 lakh
Retired Airforce employee Niraj Singh: ₹37 lakh