Caught in the web

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram-based IT employee was recently duped of nearly Rs 3 lakh after booking the latest Asus Zenbook Pro through Alibaba.com, an online shopping site. The youth bought the laptop last month through Infinite Electronics World, one of the laptop distributors of Alibaba.

He was informed that the laptop was being brought from the USA for an amount of Rs 3.22 lakh. As requested, he deposited a large sum as customs duty to an account sent to him via WhatsApp. The youth realised that it was a scam only when he was asked to shell out more money by the cyber crooks. Thereafter, he filed a complaint with the Thiruvananthapuram Cybercrime police station.

In another incident, a woman lost more than Rs 4,000 after she tried to claim a 50 per cent discount on an apparel she bought through Myntra online shopping application. In Kochi, many cases were reported in which fraudsters offered attractive scratch-and-win cards through popular online shopping websites such as Snapdeal and Naaptol and robbed the people of lakhs of rupees.

During the police investigation, it was found that many IT professionals working from home have fallen prey to similar scams. According to the cybercrime police, two to three such cases are being reported everyday in the state. As many as 30 cases of online cheating have been reported in the Thiruvananthapuram Cybercrime police station this year. In most cases, the victims include well-educated people.

"Due to the COVID-19 situation, many are spending more time online than ever before. Working from home has also added to more internet usage, leading to the rise in online scams. Sometimes, it becomes even difficult to trace the exact location of the server -- whether it is being operated from the country or abroad," said Thiruvananthapuram Cybercrime Police station DSP T Syam Lal. He also added that although there is an increase in online frauds and people have lost lakhs of rupees, many are reluctant to even register a compliant.

Another factor that makes it difficult for officials to nab the culprits is the privacy policy of social messaging platform ‘WhatsApp’ which doesn’t provide the traceability of messages. "We are keeping track of the perpetrators and will take action against them if online frauds are reported," said the DSP.

In Kochi, 27 cases of fraud related to online shopping and Olx have been reported so far this year.  "Whether it is creating fake UPI-based payment links or lookalike websites, phishing or even using other social engineering tactics, cyber criminals are taking advantage of lack of user awareness and luring people. These fraudsters are operating from states such as Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal with the help of just a laptop and mobile phone, which they destroy immediately after their target is achieved," said Ernakulam Rural district police chief K Kartik.

He added that awareness is being created through their official social media platforms against such frauds. Other cybercrime-related frauds reported in Kochi include creating fake websites (nine cases), banking (143), offer of gifts (23), OTP (15) and 18 job-related cases.

Portal to address online frauds

Realising that several persons like him are being cheated using e-commerce websites, an IT employee who is a digital marketeer is all set to launch an online portal -- www.justice4buyers.ml -- in collaboration with a few other professionals from the city. However, the developers have chosen not to reveal their names since they are working with some of the leading firms.

“From the research I did after becoming a victim to a massive online fraud, I realised that fraudsters were exploring certain loopholes, especially in the banking transactions that I was compelled to do. The fraudsters are focusing more on large-scale buyers,” said the IT employee who was duped of Rs 3.22 lakh. When his old laptop stopped working, he booked a 9th generation laptop which was not available for purchase in the country. 

The seller, with the registered address of Infinite Electronics World, convinced him to do the business-to-business (B2B) transaction through agents located in the country. Money was deposited in instalments to different bank accounts provided by the seller.

The IT employee said, “Researching more about online frauds, we came to know that the black money going outside the country through to different Indian banks in the form of cryptocurrency bitcoin. We are going to send a petition to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) because all transactions were done through Indian banks to a person who hadn’t furnished the Know Your Customer (KYC) details.”The online portal will be launched this week and create awareness and offer legal guidance to victims of online frauds from the state.

Complaints can also be registered on the website by filling up a form which will have columns such as material and digital evidence which will help the police officials to probe the matter. The state police have agreed to support the portal.

Faking shopping  websites
This is a relatively new modus operandi used by the fraudsters to dupe people online. However, several methods are being used to trick the customer. One is creating a genuine-looking website of popular brands such as Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra and offer cheap products. Cyber crooks make the customers pay online and once the payment is made, the customers realise that they have been bluffed only when they don’t receive the product. In other cases, new websites are created by the fraudsters selling cheaper products. In other instances, certain shortcut links created on the shopping websites which look genuine. 

Online fraudsters employ ingenious methods to lure and trap victims. Anti-cybercrime police say two to three cases are being reported everyday in the state and even educated people are being cheated with large-scale purchase to small scratch-and-win offers