Click on link turns expensive for businessman from Hyderabad, loses Rs. 1.25 lakh in seconds

All he did was click on a link sent to his mobile and presto, Rs.1.25 lakh vanished from his credit account.

Hyderabad: One click turned out to be extremely expensive for a 63 year-old businessman from Hyderabad.

All he did was click on a link sent to his mobile and presto, Rs.1.25 lakh vanished from his credit account.

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Stressing the need to be careful of cybercrime police have shared an incident in which the victim, a 63-year-old businessman from Hyderabad, received a call from someone claiming to be an executive from AU Small Finance Bank.

The caller enquired about the victim’s Aadhaar and PAN details and then sent a link to the victim’s mobile number, asking him to click on it. The victim clicked on the link without hesitation, and soon after, Rs.1.25 lakh was deducted from his credit card! .

Flabbergasted at the turn of events, the victim contacted the police and sought assistance in recovering the amount. In an advisory, the police urged the citizens to be wary of fraudsters on the prowl in the cyber-world.

The suspects use fraudulent phone numbers, text messages, voice-altering software, and social engineering to lure users to get sensitive information. The police in their advisory pointed out that the scammer generally tries to get the victim share personal information and financial details during fishing phone call. The scammer might say that the account has been compromised and KYC was pending.

The police advisory also reiterated that bank officials, financial institutions, RBI and any genuine entity never ask customers to share confidential information such as username, password, credit card details/CVV/OTP. However, in case of any genuine doubt about safety of interests, one should physically visit the bank/finance institution.

Police advisory to check cyber fraudsters:

* Don’t respond to embedded links in messages

* Don’t respond to calls asking you to update or verify KYC documents

* Don’t respond to User ID/Password/Debit Card Number/PIN/CVV/OTP etc.

* Immediately change passwords/CVV/PIN if credentials accidentally revealed

If a victim of cyber financial fraud, report at

– Cyber Crime Helpline number Ph. 1930

– Visit Cybercrime.gov.in.

– In case of emergency of cyber frauds, call or WhatsApp 8712665171