App-ly your mind, don’t end up bankrupt!

CHENNAI: To kill Monday blues, a bunch of friends decided to visit a famous restaurant in T Nagar for lunch. Mindful of the Covid restrictions, they dialled the phone number listed on the restaurant’s Google page and asked if a table was available. They then had no idea that they were falling for a brand new variant of the cash transfer con job.

“Someone took the call and said that he would call us from another number. Later, he called from another number and asked us to fill out an online form, claiming that the government had ordered all restaurants to store details of their customers,” said Kaviya EB (24), a techie from Chennai.

The form even had boxes for ATM card details, CVV number and expiry date. After Kaviya submitted the application, the fraudster sent her a link to download ‘Phoneleash’, a mobile application. Apparently, this application forwards text messages in one phone to another phone automatically. Once you install the app it requests you to enter a mobile number to which you want the messages to be forwarded. 

“Fraudsters con victims to enter their mobile number. This way when the victim receives a one-time password (OTP), the fraudster does not have to call up again since he would have received the same message to his number,” said a senior police officer privy to the case.

Kaviya entered the fraudster’s number in the app, and proceeded to pay the restaurant Rs 25,000 advance as instructed.  “However, when I made a transaction, the OTP was not shared to the fraudster. Later, he phoned me and said that most private banks have stronger firewalls that prevent OTP being shared to third party apps. He asked me if I have accounts with any national banks,” said Kaviya. 

Realising that she was being conned, Kaviya disconnected the call and uninstalled the app. Since the fraudster still kept calling her, Kaviya lodged a complaint with the Kodungaiyur police. In another incident, a 73-year-old man lost Rs 86,500 to fraudsters who operated with a similar modus operandi. The accused took control of the victim’s mobile phone after making him download the ‘Quick Support TeamViewer’ application. 

On July 9, the victim, a retired port trust staff member residing at Arumbakkam, received a call from a 
man who claimed to be a BSNL representative. “The man advised the victim to reactivate his SIM card since he has been using it for many years. The elderly man downloaded the ‘Quick Support TeamViewer’ mobile application and proceeded to pay `10 to the accused through net banking,” said a senior police officer.

With the fraudster asking him details of his debit card, the victim grew suspicious and snapped the call. “A few minutes later, he received an SMS stating that Rs 86,500 was transferred from his bank account through the Paytm application. 

“We suspect that the fraudster had noticed the victim’s net banking id and password, and got the OTP as well since he had remote access to the victim’s mobile phone,” the police officer added. Anna Nagar Cyber Cell is investigating the incident.