By PRASANJIT SAHOO, OP
Bhubaneswar: Cybercrimes in the City has witnessed a sharp rise, with fraudsters deploying increasingly sophisticated tricks to fleece citizens without ever confronting them.
Armed only with a phone call, a malicious link, or a manipulated QR code, cyber criminals are draining bank accounts in seconds. Increasingly, routine daily transactions—ranging from loans and gas bookings to traffic challans—are being weaponised by scammers, raising serious concerns for law enforcement.
QR code sticker swapping: As digital payments become ubiquitous across establishments ranging from roadside tea stalls to high-end jewellery showrooms, scammers are exploiting the reliance on QR code stickers. While sound-box payment alerts help merchants track transactions, crowded shops often make auditory verification difficult.
Taking advantage of this, fraudsters are surreptitiously replacing legitimate merchant QR stickers with their own. Consequently, customers attempting to pay vendors find their money routed directly into fraudsters’ accounts instead.
Social media loan scams: Fraudsters are also capitalising on financial distress through lucrative loan offers.
Enticing advertisements of fering low-interest loans are circulated on social platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram under the guise of pre-approved credit. These promotional posts feature embedded malicious links; clicking them grants cyber criminals unauthorised access to personal mobile data.
Victims report that scammers demand upfront payments for processing and registration fees before abruptly cutting off communication.
Cashback scams: Ahead of festivals or celebrations, fraudulent messages circulate widely in social media groups promising lucrative cashback rewards.
Lured by these offers, victims open fake messages and links, sharing sensitive personal details. Cyber criminals exploit this information to drain their bank accounts.
Gas booking and RTO challan frauds: Cyber criminals are also deploying new traps involving RTO traffic challans. Fake messages are sent to mobile phones claiming that a vehicle challan is pending, accompanied by a payment link.
Acting in haste, citizens open these links and fall victim to fraud. Gas bookings have likewise not been spared: scammers make calls or send fake links under the pretext of LPG cylinder bookings, subsidies, and deliveries to extract account details and steal money.
Advising citizens on these scams, Bhubaneswar DCP Saravana Vivek M noted that individuals should always verify messages or calls from unknown numbers before responding, and cautioned that clicking links from unverified sources frequently leads to cyber fraud.
He emphasised that people must never share OTPs, PINs, or banking credentials with anyone, and should carefully verify QR codes prior to scanning them. In the event of a cyber fraud incident, victims should immediately dial the national helpline number 1930 or file a complaint on the official cybercrime portal.