Be Careful! Scammed against all odds!!

 The next time somebody asks me to join any network that takes a test involving money before taking me in their midst, I will not even think twice before refusing the offer! Why, do you ask? Well, the answer is that you cannot trust any stranger to pay you money without taking due benefit from you And NEVER EVER fill your bank details on ANY website, coz then you are well and truly hooked and booked to be crooked by the perpetrator. In my experience of over 6 years as an FAFP expert, this was the first time I got scammed at another level. I do not mind sharing my experience, just so that you do not fall for the same trap!

So, on 25th of April, I was contacted by a lady who called herself Indira, after I clicked on a link sent to me on SMS, connecting me to a lady on WhatsApp, who identified herself as "Lily" but called herself Indira. She asked me to connect to her using Telegram and after that she took me through two transaction levels of three each in which I 'earned' Rs. 200 and Rs. 440, but only after spending Rs. 350 in two recharges of Rs. 150 and Rs. 200. That was the moment when the first RED FLAG should have been raised in my system, but it failed to happen, due to the natural greed that comes into play, which in my normal frame of mind would NEVER happen! After that she said for the next level of transactions, she will connect me to her supervisor, somebody with the handle of @MR1Indeed168 who was named Chander Singh (username @Chander111). This was not such a bad thing, to connect with someone is okay, but what happened thereafter is what proved to be my undoing.

I should have known that taking my bank details, like bank account number, debit card number and UPI Code, (another set of facts that should have set off a Red Flag), these guys would have known how much money I had in the bank. After four sets of transactions of three each, I ended up paying Rs. 5,972/-, Rs. 17,080/-, Rs. 21,349/- and Rs. 15,700/- that cleaned out my balance of Rs. 60,101/- that I had started with! To show me some cooperation this guy 'helped' me by paying Rs. 5,120/- to support the last transaction in the set of three of Rs. 20,820/-, after which I was faced with a last transaction of more than 42,000-, for which the guy had the nerve to tell me to take a loan!! But I put my foot down, being very much aware of the pitfalls of taking a loan to pay an outstanding, which would have led to far greater problems, namely paying off the loan in case these transactions did not result in a commission sufficiently large to pay off the loan!! 

I called up my younger sister, who is very much the smartest person than me, and she checked out the website and informed me that it was very much a scamming website wherein a number of people had already been scammed to larger tunes of money!

Finally, we decided that I should book a cyber complaint against these folks and also have my bank account, debit card and UPI Code frozen for the time being, till these complaints where raised. In any case, by then my bank account was already ZERO, so no loss to me. I know that deep in my heart, I may never see that money again, because these guys are smart and have done things with as much legality as possible, but still, some hope remains alive, because thesedays the Cyber Crime Cell of the bank and of the Police have also become very smart.

Finally, my advice to you is that NEVER click on any link that says it will earn you money, for that is precisely how these guys make their big bucks!! And if ever you do click it, stop the moment you are asked to pay money, whether it is Rs 100/- or more than a thousand!! That is what 'gamble' these people thrive on!!

Cheers !!
CA Vikram Shankar Mathur
30-Apr-2022 | 10:45 Hours IST

The Age of Digital Frauds

The Age of Digital Frauds

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK
Ahmedabad Mirror, Digital Fraud Section, filed under "DEEPDIVE WITH MIRROR" Sub-Heading, City Edition dated December 3rd, 2019.

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In this day and age, the ways in which Digital Frauds occur is extremely difficult to predict. As a Qualified Forensic Accounting and Fraud Prevention expert, I am sharing my thoughts about this phenomenon and to recommend some common ways in which you can detect the RED FLAG to pop up every time you encounter any kind of Digital Fraud. Let me take this up section by section:

	ONE-TIME PASSWORD VIA FAKE LISTINGS: These days, one can never trust what looks like a very attractive listing that you may see either online on the internet, or in the print media, like a flyer or a brochure claiming some fantastic and out of this word experience if you "contact this number" either on WhatsApp or by calling it. The thing to watch in such cases would be the kind of offer that they are advertising. Being a proficient blogger myself, it is fortunate that I have developed my own system of first verifying  their "tall claims" using my own methodology. These are some of  the things that you should look for: (a) use of a tag line belonging to a known company or corporation along with the statement that they "are a recognized  franchisee" who may not actually be one. (b) Use of a short link like "bit.ly", goo.gl" and the like, because a known corporation would normally state that the so-and-so person is looking after the region and would therefore use it's own website or blog etc. (c) NEVER USE YOUR REGISTERED MOBILE TO RESPOND TO THEM, instead use a mobile that is not registered in any bank in any way. If the party is genuine, they would detect that you are not their customer and would ask you to visit the nearest branch.
	SIM SWAP ATTACKS: By far the most dangerous methods used by scamsters these days, the best way to counter such an attack would be to have some sort of Internet Security installed on your smart phone (registered with the banks and containing your passwords), which, if handled properly, will lock-down any unknown instrument trying to activate your mobile number, irrespective of the mobile company which provides you this service. Install the same internet security system on your laptop or computer and register your smart phone as an authorized device on their portal. For instance, McAfee provides this service in return for  a very nominal fee on a yearly basis.
	SEKING ACCOUNT OR CARD DETAILS FOR REFUND: I have had this attempted on me multiple times, and when I told the caller that I will nto provide these details on the phone, because he was not an authorized representative of the bank that he was trying to represent, he started shouting at me on the phone saying that I was insulting an officer of the bank! Well, that is the RED FLAG for you, because firstly RBI has been saying this on various advertisements, bot in the print and the television media, that no bank will ever call you up and expect you to reveal even your card number, because that is something that they obviously have on their own record!! Secondly, the very purpose that the bank provides by the facility of a "Pin" is lost the moment you reveal it to an unknown person (not being your wife / husband / brother / sister / mother / father / another highly trusted relative)!!
	FAKE PROFILES ON MARKETPLACES: Do not use your PayTM or Bank activated Smartphone to transfer even an innocuous amount of money to any such Fake Profiles, always insist on a face-to-face meeting first
	KYC VERIFICATION FOR PAYMENT APPS: This is by far the most difficult scam to detect, what with now even Ola offering to validate your KYC on the ride that you are presently on. While I am not saying that Ola / Uber would misuse your data, but you do not even know whether the driver who comes to pick you up is even who he says he is!! Just walk into the nearest Customer Care Centre and have the executive there complete your KYC for you!!

CA VIKRAM SHANKAR MATHUR
03-Nov-2019 | 15:21 Hours IST 

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