Ramakanta Biswas

Bhubaneswar: With most financial transactions getting digitized nowadays, as the number of users of Unified Payment Interface (UPI)-based applications like Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm continue to spike so is the cases of fraudulence in cyberspace. If users are not cautious enough, cyber hackers may not hesitate to clean all cash from their bank accounts in a fraction of second.

Two such cases of online fraud have come to fore in Odisha including one in the Capital city Bhubaneswar. In both cases, the conmen identified themselves as employees of online payment applications and lured the users with lucrative offers before duping them of thousands of rupees.

While a youth, Sunu Ghadei of Bhubaneswar reportedly lost Rs 38,000 to the online fraud, another user, Manish Sahu of Ranpur NAC area in Nayagarh district, also fell prey to the fraud and lost Rs 41,000.

Sharing the modus operandi of the fraudster, Ghadei said, “I got a call on my cellphone a few days back where the caller identified himself as an executive of PhonePe mobile app. The caller informed me that I am eligible to get Rs 1,700 cashback and asked me to follow some procedures. But surprisingly, as soon as I followed his directions, all my savings were deducted from my bank account.”

Meanwhile, a probe has been launched into the incident after a complaint was lodged by Ghadei at a cyber police station.

https://youtu.be/TCIkL2OVecg

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