Online frauds: Telangana Police warns against fake Valentine’s Day offers

To cash in on the craze among the youth on Valentine’s Day, cyber fraudsters have come up with one more new modus operandi to dupe teenagers, circulating links on social media

Hyderabad: With youngsters gearing up to celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14, the Telangana Police have cautioned the youth not to fall prey to fake gift offers made by cyber crooks to swindle money from gullible people.

To cash in on the craze among the youth on Valentine’s Day, cyber fraudsters have come up with one more new modus operandi to dupe teenagers, circulating links on social media. After sending the link, the fraudsters ask them to open the link to take part in a quiz to answer over half a dozen easy questions.

If the people who receive the link respond and answer the questions correctly, he or she will get a message that they won a branded mobile phone in the quiz and in order to receive it, they must download an app to pay Rs.1,500 as processing fee.

Minutes after paying the amount after downloading the app, there will be no response and all the data including crucial information saved in the phone along with the contact numbers would be easily accessed by fraudsters with the app, police officials said.

As chances of cyber crooks misusing the data in mobile phones is high, police have advised people especially the youth not to open any link either forwarded in WhatsApp groups or circulated on other social media platforms.

Central Crime Station Sub-Inspector G Mallesh said the fraudsters were circulating the link claiming that it belonged to reputed companies in the country only to attract people. Instances of innocent people being duped by these cyber crooks have come to the notice of the police department.

Though the amount swindled by them may not be much, the fraudsters can misuse the phone data. “We request people not to open links forwarded by unknown persons,” Mallesh advised.

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