Jagoinvestor

May 28, 2015

5 kind of online frauds, where investors have lost their money

A few months back I got a call from an NGO based in Delhi. They were trying to help a small baby, which was a critical medical condition and needed immediate medical help and they were generating the money from all over India. Even there were social media campaigns around it. The girl talking to me told me its an urgent matter and how as a citizen, my help could mean a lot to the poor child.

various types of online fraud where investors have lost there money

I told her, she can mail me the details, so that I can look at what I can do from my side. After 1 hour, when I typed the NGO name and it turned out to be a big fraud campaign, which was widespread and many people reported their complaint.

But this was just one example. There are so many areas where various kind of frauds are going on all over the country and many uneducated people who do not understand the online world fall for it and lose their money. This is worst than mis-selling at times because in mis-selling you get bad returns or your money is stuck, but in these kinds of frauds you lose all the money forever. So I want to share some tricks used by people to do online frauds and their modus operandi. Here they are –

Fraud #1 – Fake Job Offer

Millions of people are unemployed in India and that has given birth to this job offer scam. In this, you get an email offer from a reputed company which invites you for their interview. You see all kind of numbers, venue, last date etc, and then you see a line mentioning that you need to deposit a security deposit or some basic fees, which will be refunded later.

Given so much of unemployment, a lot of people fall for this trick. The emails look very genuine when you read it, as it contains the company logo, or it might be on the letterhead of the company, but when you dive deeper and check the email id from which it was sent or the website link, you can figure out that something is wrong. Below is one such mail.

Fake job offer

Remember that no company in its senses will ever ask you to deposit any kind of money with them for an interview. Below is an example of how people lose such a big amount in these kinds of fraud offers.

Cybercrime police in Bangalore, India have busted a fraudulent on-line job racket offering nurses jobs in the UK and arrested five persons including two Nigerians. The accused had cheated a nurse to the tune of Rs11 lakh by promising her a job at the Ealing Hospital there.

The nurse had responded to the email job offer at the Ealing hospital in UK by sending her CV and educational certificates. The accused subsequently got in touch with the victim on her telephone and asked her to remit money for anti-terrorism and drug trafficking safety certificates, WHO immunization insurance and skilled immigration permit certificates.

The victim remitted Rs 11,03,500 to different bank accounts as suggested provided by the accused before she realized she had been conned by the gang of fraudsters when she stopped getting responses from the accused.

Fraud #2 – Help a child in an Emergency situation

This is what I was talking about at the start of this article.

Just search for the term “relief India trust scam” and you will see how many people got a call from this so-called NGO claiming to raise money for medical treatment of some needy baby. I got a call myself 2-3 times, and every time I kept investigating the issue to understand how they work. When I enquired about their Registration number, they even gave me that, but then it’s not a big deal. You can always start an NRO with bad intention.

They were extremely pushy and didn’t have a lot of supportive information regarding their claim. There are many other scams going on in the name of helping someone. It can be on helping a poor girl education or for the treatment of a kid, who has no one in the family.

They even go to an extent of telling you that the baby is on the ventilator and the surgery is in the next 30 minutes. You often see this in train’s also where a lady comes with a pamphlet asking for help. I am seeing that same thing from last 30 yrs in sleeper class. Even I see the same thing on some buses.

Coming back to the online version of fraud Here is two such experience from this website

relief india trust scam

I don’t want to paint all the NGO’s with the same brush. There are many good NGO’s also, they are doing good work, but many NGO’s have sprouted up, only to take advantage of these kinds of situations and exploit emotions of people to make money.

Fraud #3 – I am calling from IRDA

This is a well-known scam these days. Almost every investor has some or the other kind of insurance policies, especially from LIC. So these fraudsters give a call to you and ask you about your policy and tell you that they are calling from IRDA and you are eligible for some bonus after many years and in order to get your bonus you will have to either send some money or buy some policy again.

A lot of times, they have some more details about you and your policy and they look genuine at times. And many investors fall for these scams. Here is an advertisement which cautions investor’s about it

You can also listen to some sample audio calls which was recorded by some investors. You can listen to them and see the tricks used by them to cheat and fool investors.

Fraud #4 – Verification Call from Bank using OTP

This might be a new thing for many investors. In this fraud, the target is generally uneducated investors who are not that much educated or who are very new to internet banking. The fraudster poses them as a bank verification officer and gets all the information like debit card number, expiry date, CVV number, and even OTP number while doing the online transaction parallelly.

This recently happened with one of my friend’s father who lives in Patna. His father was not that well versed with internet banking and used to do all his transactions in offline mode. So naturally, he was not aware of how the system works. One day he gets a call which goes like this

Fraudster : Hello , Mr PQR.  I am XYZ calling from SBI bank . Your name is on our records who recently got a debit card. We are seeing some suspicious activity in your account recently, so this is a verification call to make sure that the debit card is in the actual account holder name.

Friends Dad : Oh ok .. What needs to be done to secure my account ?

Fraudster : Please verify your debit card number and the expiry date . It would be written on the card.

Friends Dad : (shares the numbers)

Fraudster : If you check on the back of card, there is a 3 digit number, its called CVV number. Please share it with me. Is it printed there ?

Friends Dad : Yes, its there .. Its 645

Fraudster : Ok , I have initiated the verification, I am now sending a 6 digit code to your registered mobile number, share that with me and then delete the sms. Please dont share it with anyone else

Friends Dad : Yea, I got it just now .. its 745523

Fraudster : Ok great , you will get a sms in sometime informing you about the verification success .. I am now disconnecting the call. Thanks for your time

Friends Dad : Thanks ..

( After 30 seconds …. there comes an sms )

"Dear Customer , Your Ac XXXXXXXXX567 is debited with INR 24,500 on 27th Apr .. Your available balance is INR 34,000"

The real story?

What happened in the background, is that the fraudster tried to make an online transaction on some website, which required a debit card number, expiry, and CVV number. After that, an OTP is required, which comes to the registered mobile number. Note that the modus operandi might deviate a bit, but the point is the same.

The fraudster tries to show himself as a bank verification officer and asks for all the details. I know you and I might quickly judge that this is a fraud call, but millions of people who are from a rural background or from past generations cannot.

Because first, they don’t understand the online world and the new way of banking which has come into the picture in the last 10 yrs and they are sometimes quite afraid of making a mistake. When they are told that their account is compromised and their money is at risk, they take wrong decisions in haste. Below is another real-life example of this kind of fraud

banking fraud using otp

Hence, make sure you never share your card with anyone or share its details like CVV number of ATM pin. A lot of people do it in Restaurants and Petrol pumps. 99.9% of times, nothing happens, but we are talking about that 0.1% times when things can get nasty.

Fraud #5 – Please verify your bank details (Phishing)

It’s a very common kind of fraud in the online world. It’s called Phishing, which aims to steal your sensitive data like username, password or card details. You get an email asking you to verify your account or details, failing which your account will be closed.

When you click on the link, it takes you to the website which looks exactly similar to your bank or card company, you enter your details thinking that it’s your bank website only. But in reality, it’s a fraud website which captures your sensitive information, which later is used to do transactions and you lose the money. Below is a youtube video explaining how it works.

Here is an example of an email which I got on the name of SBI bank.

SBI fake mail

So make sure you do not fall for any kind of emails asking for your sensitive details like the password or PIN number. No bank asks for it ever.

Even I have received fraud call from a guy stating to be RBI Officer. He claimed that my bank account will be closed because it is not linked with my Aadhaar number. Fortunately, I recorded the call because I knew that he was trying to fool me so that he can know my card details. To win my trust he made his senior also talk to me.

How to prevent yourself from getting trapped in these situations? 

From the last 10 yrs, this kind of online frauds has increased because the whole world has moved to the web and all kind of transactions are now online. It’s important to be attentive to your actions and with whom are you interacting.

  1. You will never receive a phone from RBI or Other banks for reasons such an Aadhaar not linked etc.. Please be aware that if there is any recent activity such as if you have deposited some cheque then you might receive a call if bank officials want some information regarding the cheques. Otherwise, no calls from banks for any backdated activity.
  2. Never share your card number, CVV number, OTP etc.. to anyone.
  3. Download Truecaller in your phone. So if you receive a call from an unknown number who is asking your bank account details then you can check the number in Truecaller. Truecaller will tell you if this number is spam or not and if it shows to be spam then block the number.

Have you come across any other kind of online frauds other than listed above?

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vikram
vikram
8 years ago

I got the call from unknown number asking SBI debit card detail by giving reason of your card is going to expire, i said my card still have 1 year to expire, calling guy said its part of renewal process, so i told him card number, then he asked date on card , again i told the same, now he asked me CVV number, i asked him bank never ask CVV number you are fraud, he told its part of card renewal process, process is already started if you refused to tell cvv number, service charge of Rs 4000 will be charged to you and it will auto debited from your account, at this moment i was sure that he is fraud so i abused him, so he said you can’t abuse SBI people, then i again abused him, later he disconnected call.

Immediately i changed the card pin and informed phone number to SBI helpline number. This was first time with me but lack of knowledge person will get in trouble with this.

Umesh P
Umesh P
Reply to  Jagoinvestor
7 years ago

Thanks Vikram for sharing this incident to all readers.

shashi
shashi
8 years ago

Nice educational post, must share with your friends and relative
who are new to digital world.

In Gujarat in local taluka place there was a mega online scam
you have to register and get membership it cost its range from 3000 to 10000
once enrol they give login and password and you have to fill survey on their site.
they pay weekly. initially they pay for three four month. once people get trust
they get more membership (single person have 10/20 account). Even some people
rented the shop and put computers to do this kind of job. After four month this
company run away.

Asthar
Asthar
8 years ago

This is about a scam run by few NGOs based on charity.
These fake NGOs are namely
1. Relief India Trust http://www.reliefindiatrust.org
2. Mission Heal, http://www.missionheal.org
3. A Giggles Welfare organization. http://www.agwo.org/

All these three NGOs are scams and fraudsters . Their plan of operation is such that they will first contact u over phone and will introduce themselves as one of the student volunteers of the NGO and then will describe the plight of a poor child admitted at Aiims. And then wil ask to donate money to the NGOs account.

And the biggest part is that this scam is a big matrix beyond our imagination and we won’t feel like its fake in the first look .

Why we won’t feel them that they are fake?
They are able to procure a NGO certificate from Govt (authenticity yet to be proved). Their name is been listed in Govts NGO website. They have a rehabilitation centre which will look real in a photograph but doesnt have any children being admitted or served at the centre. By some spurious means they are able to obtain certificate of appreciation from PM & Health minister. They have a participation certificate for a seminar conducted at Aiims with them . They have procured medical records of few children treated at Aiims. The treating doctor will usually write referral letters to medical social welfare unit of the hospitals to find out fund for treating these poor children. They have procured these referral letters and on those letters they themselves have over written that ‘the case has been forwarded to relief India Trust/mission heal for needful’. It’s all been published in their site. When we doubt about their authenticity they will ask us to come online and will show all these letters,certificates, NGO certification etc published on their website. On the first look, no one can doubt their genuineness.

But truth is that these three NGOs doesn’t have any role in collecting money for poor patients admitted at Aiims. Most of the cases published in their sites are from Aiims hosp and Kalawati saran children hospital. These two hospitals have got their own medical social welfare unit to raise fund for treatment of the poor. They doesn’t endorse any outside NGO s to collect money for poor patients .

I have confirmed it with AIIMS Medical social welfare unit. (Email attached). Only the medical social welfare unit of AIIMS are authorized to receive donations on behalf of poor children admitted at AIIMS. The unit have advised not to donate to any of these NGOs because the unit have not endorsed these NGOs to collect money for patients admitted at AIIMS. They are behind these three fraud NGOs and have asked to report such calls and emails with phone numbers and email to
Their email [email protected] . I have reported my issue and they have collected details. You also pls report urs with phone number and email IDs.

This is a commission based scam. The student volunteers doesn’t have much idea about the real scam running behind. Each student volunteer is provided with case record of a child and they are instructed to raise about 1lakh for each case. The commission offered for student volunteers ranges from 10% to above. They will plead you beg you and go to any level for meeting their target. The amount donated goes to the NGOs account but never been spend for charity because these fake NGOs doesn’t have any connection with AIIMS or Kalawati saran hospital. The student volunteers are instructed to work such that , they should make their client donate before any further suspicion on activity of NGO arises on clients mind. They literally give you a emotional blackmail explaining about the sad condition of the poor parents and the child.

This is a well structured scam based on charity. There might be many behind the scenes persons might have involved in it. Even if they are fake these people are able to obtain NGO certification from govt. They are able to obtain latest case records from Aiims.
So its not scam run by few students. Inside people might also be helping them.

The only thing you can do is to report such calls to medical social department of aiims [email protected]

Ayan
Ayan
9 years ago

ONE PERSONAL SHOCKING INCIDENCE 1 –

A few years ago, I was at office, my mother (house wife 55yrs) called me from home, that a Sales man / Agent claiming from SBI Bank and asking for our Bank Account and Card Details for verification!!

I told my mother shut the door and call police and neighbours….

ONE PERSONAL SHOCKING INCIDENCE 2 –

Just few months ago, I was at home, a person came to my house claiming from AXIS Bank. He asked me he needs ‘feedback’ for the AXIS Credit Card that I use.
I asked him to show documents and ID.
No ID but he showed me a doc of list with many names, address, mobile and full Credit Card no!
I declined to talk.
Went to the Bank to report and change the card.

Kedar
Kedar
9 years ago

I follow your websites regularly and its a pleasure reading your articles.
You take care to keep your blog posts in sync with reality and it feels as if you are personally sharing your experiences with us face to face.
Keep it up!! Best of luck and keep blogging!!!

Madangopal
Madangopal
9 years ago

Dear Manish,
Nice article to be read and followed in day to day.
I have almost experienced the medical emergency several times, and my wife had a bitter experience of the ATM fraud.
Thank God we were saved at Rs. 1110/ – only.
However I have seen many peoples getting trapped in the Reynold Money / KBC (Nasik) like schemes.
I believe people should understand that even anyone promising you returns of double/ triple in a short span of time, is gonna dupe you at certain point of time. I saw people drawing money initially from the scheme, but finally came to understand via newspaper headlines that the directors had fled overseas with Crores of Rupees with them and Investors have broken through their office and carrying away furnitures/ LCD etc…..
Its very common in Indian, how to educate the common man.
Its an unusual subject to readers at your site, but will help many peoples.

Thanks and regards,
madangopal

Vishal
Vishal
9 years ago

Manish,
My case was peculiar. One guy called me saying that he is from recovery department of reputed *** bank credit cards division and told me that my cousin used *** card and defaulted 60,000 since 6 years. He confidently said that his PAN will be blacklisted and his kids may not get education loan or he himself cannot do any business as he is an entrepreuer. The caller knows my cousin’s enterprise name, address etc but those agents never had courage to visit him personally. I asked them who gave my number, they informed that my cousin himself gave my number and started talking in abusive manner, they called me in office hours 4 times a day an i owe them 60K and they know my PAN. Is this a FRAUD too?

Mahesh
Mahesh
9 years ago

While we discuss these frauds, I think we are ignoring one very major monetrary fraud going around. Frauds in Healthcare.

I was reading the other day, WHO recommands at most 15% of deliveries through C-Section whereas in our private hospitals, the figure is much above 50% of total deliveries. Similarly, in most of the cases the tests prescribed to us, are inessential.

They know that we have medical insurance and they take advantage of our emotions and worries. I prefer not to go to doctor as much as I can avoid.

Isn’t it a monetary fraud?

SS
SS
9 years ago

I have recently fallen prey to an IRDA scam. Have paid money to scamsters posing as an independent body appointed by IRDA. They promised retrieve money from my two troublesome policies and shift them into an FD. I paid up additional money to the tune of nearly 2.5 lacs as a “security amount”. They company that was supposed to anchor the FD is not registered under Registrar of Companies. Just checked last night. Previous premiums are also intact with the insurance companies. I cannot believe I have been so careless with my hard earned money.

I need help. Can anyone guide me as to which division of police can help me out.

Deeps
Deeps
Reply to  SS
9 years ago

Economic offence wing of police..

Rajesh
Rajesh
9 years ago

Another fraud is asking you money to pay money after disconnecting an internet connections. Tikona does this, asking pay money even though you don’t owe them any.

http://forum.tikona.in/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=80867

Ashutosh
Ashutosh
9 years ago

Hi Manish,

Thanks for sharing a nice article again. I have some of my personal experiences to share-

1. When I was in Delhi, I got a call from ‘Relief India Trust’ in the name of helping a child who is admitted in AIIMS in a critical situation. Thinking it to be genuine, I transferred some money to them and thereafter they started calling me every month. Not knowing the truth, I helped them for several other occasions also and suddenly there were bombardment of calls from several other NGOs also for donation. Then I realized that it’s a fraud. Thereafter, whenever the call me, I requested them to remove my name from their database but they did not stop to call me and I have to change my number.

2. Although, it’s usual to get fake job offers through email everyday, I got an offer from MARUTI company claiming that they found my CV through a job portal and asked me to come for an interview for which they will send me a flight ticket after receiving the security deposit. They have mentioned Basant Kunj, Delhi as their office address and a phone number (precisely a mobile number). I understood that it’s a scam and decided to call that number. A person with Japanese accent received the call and told me that they have opened a new office in Basant Kunj and they are recruiting for their new office and this information is not available at their website yet. I hunged the call and forwarded the message to Delhi Police (through email). I don’t know what steps they have taken in this context.

3. I am in scientific research domain and came to US last year. About one month after my arrival in US, I got a call claiming it to be from IRS of US government. The person on the other end told me that there are some tax dues in my name and if I shall not pay this immediately, I shall be arrested and they will send me back to my home country. I asked him to come and arrest me and then he never called me. Very surprisingly, he alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling and he had all my personal details including work place, social security, country name and my date of arrival in US etc.

4. My uncle who is a government employee in a small town of UP got a call from his bank (the person claimed to be the bank manager) asking for his debit card details . He refused to tell the same to that guy since he personally knows most of the bank staff. Later, we found the mobile number series was from Jharkhand.

I hope my experience will help some one to be a victim.

KS
KS
9 years ago

I am pretty cautious regarding donations but this Relief India trust seems to have gotten the better of me.. 🙁 The first time they called i was referred to the website and the patient profile, it seemed fine and what more they even were and still are taking donations through credit cards. The volunteer insisted on putting her name which i too found unusual but i let it be. I was even sent the receipt via email and courier. I checked the receipt and the date of donation was all correct and seemed very happy. I even donated the next time they called thinking i was helping out a poor person. Then the number of callers from Noida and Delhi area asking for donations increased and the volunteers were always delhi university students working hard for helping out the poor patients..This aroused my suspicions but i chose to think that they would be doing a barter of donor phone nos… One person from organization called Sparsh called asking for donation for the same baby name again. I just said i have already donated and cut of the phone…After this incident i stopped taking any calls with numbers i am not aware of… After reading your article now it seems the donation was down the drain and my hard earned money was helping out a fraudster organization.

Arul
Arul
9 years ago

Few months back, I got call and the person says he is going to redeem expired reward points of my HDFC credit card. He was asking my OTP to do that and I did not accept his request. Be aware about this kind of frauds

Anonymous
Anonymous
9 years ago

I got a call recently from a mobile number +917763098761. He was impersonating Bank manager of ICICI bank Delhi Head office. He said since I did not link my bank details with Adhar card, he is blocking my ATM card and my account. He also mentioned confidently that ICICI bank sent me reminders twice and I did not respond so he is blocking my account and all the money in my account will go to the bank. I already started having some doubts since why would a bank manager call me and I was certain I did not get any reminders but since I do not use the account so often I thought that might be the case. But then I asked him to email me the same and that I will decide and tell him back in sometime. On this he got annoyed and started using very abusive language. It is then it was very clear that the call was fake and I cut the call. Then I searched Google with this number and I am surprised to see that many people have received call from this number and still this crazy person is lurking free with no punishment what so ever. Kindly share this as much as you can so that an appropriate action can be taken,

Amol
Amol
9 years ago

Another type of fraud… You will get a call from someone who will say he is from Rajasthan and found some gold ornaments while digging up some land or something similar. Then they will say that they want to sell it to you as they are afraid of going to any jewelers or give some similar reason. Then they will ask you to meet them in person and even offer you to check the gold from some jeweler.
I got such calls 3-4 times and every time the same story will repeat. I usually talk to them for 2-3 mins to have some fun 🙂 As soon as you tell them that they should be reporting the finding to Police as such gold belongs to government, they will start abusing you and I enjoy listening all the abusive words from them and keep on saying.. “Yar.. tumhe isase jyada aur behtar galiya nahi aati kya.. kuchh aur bhi sunao to maja aa jayega…”. In turn they feel hopeless after some time and hung up.

Dhinesh
Dhinesh
9 years ago

Hi Manish, I received a call from a fake person today (after I read this article lase week) and he claimed money for a girl’s treatment and he said the girl will lose her eyesight if the operation will not held within today.

Such a co-incident and fortunate that I read this article. I dropped off the call after new seconds of his explanation. Thanks so much for creating wonderful awareness among people!!

Preeti
Preeti
9 years ago

Thanks for the info – very informative and helpful ..Please keep sharing such details with all of us.

Sashi
Sashi
9 years ago

Hi… Manish,,, Gud mrng

I am a small investor, very new to stock market… Just 6 months old… I have first chosen mutual funds.. then SIP and Delivery trading. and then Intraday, where from the past 6 months, nothing had given me any profits…

I used to do it using Fundsindia Website… As they r not providing for Option Trading, I joined in Zerodha.. Where their software is little hard to understand..

What do you say? Shal I go for option Trading, with little amounts of 2k to 10k… I want to take risk, but wana get rich quick 🙂

Anjan Sharma
Anjan Sharma
9 years ago

I was out on holiday last week. A couple of ladies came to sleeper class wearing white apron and asked for donation for treatment of Thalassemia patients. They showed me a pamphlet and even gave me a receipt for my donation. Are you telling me they are fake as well? There really is no way to verify these things on the spot. I only gave away 10 bucks, so no big loss for me but they could be earning in thousands like this everyday from a single train alone.

Nagaraja
Nagaraja
9 years ago

I have received a call, they said calling from VISA company and since you are a long term loyal customer you are eligible for additional features / bonus. Please do the verification to process the same.

When I asked what details are required, they started asking for the name printed on the card, and then comes colour of the LOGO printed. …
I got suspicious and asked, why do you want colour of the logo… all the cards carries same colour.
the call got disconnected.

Thanks

Joel
Joel
Reply to  Nagaraja
9 years ago

I got a variation of this. They asked me that for verification purpose they would like to know the color of the the visa or master logo. This question made me highly suspicious but i fooled around giving some weird colour . The called asked me many times to confirm the colour but stil i insisted on that weird colour and the call got disconnected. Can some please elaborate what lies ahead and what could be the modus operandi.