The Thiruvananthapuram City police have issued caution against new-age financial frauds such as juice jacking that could find several gullible victims divulging their banking credentials.
City Police Commissioner and Inspector General Balram Kumar Upadhyay, who has been leading a month-long sensitisation programme to educate the public on the modus operandi of financial fraudsters, threw light on the possibility of charging port of mobiles being used to transfer data (or files) in public mobile charging points.
Juice jacking involved the unsolicited installation of unknown applications or malware when mobile phones are connected to unverified charging ports. By gaining access of the phones, fraudsters will be able to control, access and steal sensitive data, e-mail, SMS and saved passwords. The public have been advised against using public or unknown charging ports and cables.
Lottery fraud
There have been instances when many people have fallen prey to lottery frauds when scammers establish contact with their victims through e-mail or phone calls to claim that they have won huge lotteries. However, in order to receive the cash prize, they will be forced to confirm their identities by verifying through bank account or credit card on a website created by such gangs in order to capture the banking credentials.
In some cases, the racketeers would ask the victims to pay the ‘taxes’ upfront or to transfer shipping charges or processing fees to receive the lottery. Since the requested money is a small percentage of the purported lottery prize, the victim may fall into such traps.
Online job fraud
The bank account of victims get compromised when they share secure credentials on fake job search portals. Cyber criminals also go to great lengths to pose as officials of reputed companies and even confirm selections after holding interviews as charade. In such cases, the victim is often incited to pay for “mandatory training programmes” and other purposes.
Mr. Upadhyay urged job seekers to refrain from making payments on unknown job portals. A genuine company would never seek money while offering jobs, he pointed out.
He also raised caution against fake advertisements of personal loan offers at attractive low rates of interest, with easy repayment options or with any security pre-requisites. To induce confidence among their potential victims, the fraudsters could use e-mail IDs that could create an impression of belonging to senior officials of genuine non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).
When customers approach them for loans, they manage to obtain various upfront charges like processing fee, GST, intercity charge, advance EMI, un-hold charges etc and abscond without disbursing the loans.
The senior police officer reminded the public that NBFCs never ask for an advance fee before processing a loan application. Besides, such fees were deducted from the loan amount.
