Who knew that ordering a pizza can create such a disaster for the Bengaluru based techie, who lost Rs 95,000 in an online scam.
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How Did This Happen?
On December 1, NV Sheik, a resident of Bengaluru’s Koramangala, simply used food delivery app Zomato on his phone to order a pizza for him.
As per the police report, after waiting for an hour, his order had not been delivered so he looked up for the customer care service number for the app.
After calling the number, he was allegedly informed that the restaurant was not accepting orders and was assured that a refund would be initiated soon.
The fraudster posing as a customer care executive allegedly informed Sheik that he would receive a message on his phone after the call and after clicking on a link in the message, his refund request would be processed further.
The victim Sheikh clicked on the link provided in the message and became a victim of a phishing expedition and as the fraudsters were able to access his bank account details.
How Much Loss Did The Victim Face?
As per the report, in few minutes, Rs 45,000 had been deducted from one of his bank accounts and another Rs 50,000 had been deducted before he could transfer the remaining amount to a different account.
After that Mr Sheik approached the Madiwala police station in the city and filed a complaint with them.
The case is under investigation now. The victim had reportedly been saving the money to pay for the expenses of his mother’s cancer treatment.
What Does Zomato Has To Say About The Instance?
While talking on the incident, Zomato informed that they do not have a customer care number.
A Zomato spokesperson said that the company does not have a calling service for customer care.
He said “We constantly remind our users via different channels of communication that we do not have a customer care number. Chat and email are our primary channels of care. While we take every effort to ensure customer safety and security, we also urge our esteemed customers to be vigilant and not share their personal or bank account details with anyone.”
Giving more information he said that it is true that when an order is delayed or faces issues on Zomato, one has to go to help section and chat with customer care, a random Google search does throw up a lot of fraudulent numbers. (Reference)
What About Other Incidents?
It has become a daily routine since we are getting reports of cybercrime almost every other day.
It seems that we are going ahead with digitization without considering an individual’s privacy and data safety measures.
General awareness is another big issue causing all these mishaps.
You may also be interested in other cybercrimes reported recently.
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Fraud Paytm Employee Robs Rs 1.85 Lakh From This Gurgaon Manager: Beware Of This Paytm KYC Scam