Beware This woman lost Rs. 16 lakh on FAKE customer care call Check tips save your money

Online scams and fraud calls are on the rise like never before! Cybercriminals and fraudsters are using new tactics to steal personal information and siphoning off money from bank accounts. Various ways are being employed by these fraudsters and one of them involves a fake customer care call and this particular one cost a woman from Gurgaon a whopping Rs. 16 lakh! The scammers used one of the simplest tricks to dupe her - they called her and made her believe they were from the bank's customer care services. Once the targetted victim believes them, the rest of the process of stealing money from the bank account becomes easy.

The same happened in November, 2021 with Poornima Anand, a resident of Sector 53, Gurgaon, who subsequently registered a complaint with a bank customer care number related to her account issue. She related that on November 12, she had received a call from a person named Rahul Sharma, who convinced her that he was calling from her bank. The fraudsters asked her to download and install AnyDesk, an app that gives remote access to your personal computers and other devices. She downloaded it on her system and provided him access too, Times of India reported. That was the worst thing to do.

Ultimately, via AnyDesk, the fraudster used her own computer to transfer Rs. 13.15 lakh to some online wallet without letting her know. She told TOI that she remained unaware about the incident even later as she hadn't received any message or notification regarding the transactions from the bank.

Worse was to follow as the story doesn't end here! Later in the month, on November 25, she again received a call from an alleged bank representative who asked her to provide access to AnyDesk on her computer. When she did he logged on to her bank account too. In this second incident, the fake representative of the Bank stole around Rs. 3 lakh from her bank account.

The problem with Anand was that she was gullible enough to fall into the trap laid by the fraudsters. She had no idea how AnyDesk, a perfectly good application being used by the public and businesses, could be used to steal money from her bank account. While looking at Anand's case and the rise in fraud cases, it is advisable for bank account holders to be aware of the situation and keep these points below in mind at all times: