Hyderabad: When the supermarket in the colony celebrates its 20th anniversary and holds an online spin-a-wheel contest for gift-free vouchers, who would not try it?
And the tendency is what cybercriminals are now focusing on, by cheating people in the guise of offers and free discounts to customers of local supermarkets or retail stores. In the city, several customers of a leading supermarket chain recently received WhatsApp and SMS messages saying that their friendly neighborhood store is celebrating its 20th anniversary and giving free gift cards to loyal customers.
The message also has a link to a website, which is clicked on to send the user to a website where they have to spin a wheel to win a gift. According to the website, only one gift per IP address was allowed, which also left most doubters for the trick. After the wheel was turned, they were asked to share the message with other users to claim the prize.
Police said the links were phishing links, with the website itself a fake link, with the crooks stealing all the personal information the user unknowingly entered to get the free gift.
According to police, there were several people, including young people, software employees and homemakers, among the victims, whose data was stolen and in some cases also bank account information.
One fact that many forgot to check was whether the supermarket was actually celebrating an anniversary, which it was not. The high number of complaints has made it clear to management that it does not operate such a scheme.
According to internet crime officials, the lesson is moral that if the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably will not be. Unknown links, whether it promises the moon or not, should always be a strict NO.
‘Creating a fake logo’s not a big deal these days. It is therefore better to avoid all such messages, especially those that come with links. It is also advisable not to send such messages, “said an official.
Source: Telangana Today