Man falls victim to cyber scam after dialling ‘Uber customer care’ number on Google

According to the FIR accessed by IANS, the victim, identified as Pradeep Chowdhary, residing in SJ Enclave, took a cab to Gurugram for Rs 205, but Uber charged him Rs 318.

New Delhi: A man, charged with an extra Rs 100 for an Uber trip, fell victim to deception when he sought assistance through a Google-listed customer care number. Shockingly, the discovered number turned out to be fake, leading to his unfortunate loss of over Rs five lakhs to online scam.

According to the FIR accessed by IANS, the victim, identified as Pradeep Chowdhary, residing in SJ Enclave, took a cab to Gurugram for Rs 205, but Uber charged him Rs 318.

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In his complaint, Chowdhary said: “The driver suggested I could get a refund by calling customer care. I obtained the number from Google, ‘6289339056,’ which redirected to ‘6294613240,’ and then to Rakesh Mishra at ‘9832459993.’”

“Subsequently, he instructed me to download the ‘Rust Desk app’ from the Google Play Store. After that, he asked me to open PayTM and message ‘rfnd 112’ for the refund amount. When questioned about providing my phone number, he claimed it was for account verification,” Chowdhary added.

“Initially, Rs 83,760 was transferred to Atul Kumar, followed by four more transactions of Rs four lakhs, Rs 20,012, Rs 49,101 and other. Three transactions were through PayTM and one via PNB Bank, as per the complainant.

A senior police official said that they have filed an FIR under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and section 66D of the Information Technology Act, with an ongoing investigation.