Cyberabad cops warn against fake customer care service numbers on Google

Hyderabad: The Cyberabad cyber crime police station has, of late, received several complaints of customer care service frauds. Fraudsters from Punjab, Haryana, UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand are posting fake customer care service numbers on Google and cheating people, the police said.

In one such case, a Kukatpally resident, Jogi Maheshwarudu, was cheated to the tune of Rs. 1,61,000. Mr. Maheshwarudu paid his credit card bill for Rs. 32,052 through net banking from his HDFC bank account but the amount was not remitted to the credit card account. He looked up the bank's customer care number on Google and called them. The receiver asked him his account details. He was also asked to download Team viewer/Quick support App on his mobile phone and transfer an amount of Re. 1 to the Google pay account from his account. He did so and received messages saying that Rs. 1,61,000 had been debited from his account.

In another case, Sujaram Solanki of Hyderabad's Balanagar lost more than Rs. 72,000 in a similar way. He paid Rs. 2,800 to a friend through Phonepe wallet. When the amount was not credited to his friend's account, he searched for Phonepe's customer care number on Google and called them. The fraudsters asked for his bank account details and instructed him to download Any Desk App on his mobile phone and enter his bank details. They stole Rs. 72,905 in five transactions from his Axis Bank account.

The Cyberabad police have issued an advisory and warned people against sharing details of their bank account, card, or wallet to any customer care executive. Such details are not required to resolve the customer's issues, they said. Do not download any remote access application when instructed by a customer care person to do so, as the fraudster may note down the bank/card details, the police said and requested people to call the original customer care numbers and never share any bank-related details with them.