Noida police urge people to beware of Covid related cyber frauds, issue advisory

Police said there have been a few cases wherein people have been defrauded of money after clicking on such links.

The Gautam Budh Nagar police department has urged the public to beware of cyber fraud cases amid the ongoing lockdown and has also advised people to steer clear of any suspicious messages and links that offer “free tests”.

In the district, most cyber fraud cases are related to unified payments interface (UPI) and KYC of e-wallets, followed by fake offers of lottery and jobs. (AP)

Police said there have been a few cases wherein people have been defrauded of money after clicking on such links.

“It is not a very significant number but there have been isolated incidents. Some people have also lost money to a fake PMCares fund ID. The idea of issuing the advisory is to ensure that such cases don’t pick up in the days to come,” Ashok Kumar Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police, said.

According to police, most of these frauds are perpetrated through social media sites and range from fraudsters asking for money from victims as a fee for conducting a medical test to determine Covid-19 or by cloning the social media ID of a person and then asking that person’s friends and relatives for money citing some difficulty. In some cases, the fraudsters offer free telecom recharges, police said.

“If any demands for money are made through social media, people should verify if the information is true and only make any money transfer. Also don’t clicks on links send via text messages, offering free recharges or free services,” the advisory issued by the district cyber cell said.

The advisory further said unverified messages or links related to Covid-19 medical tests or provision of essential services should be ignored. On April 18, an engineer was duped of ₹1.5 lakh in the name of donating to a relief fund. According to the complainant, he received a call and the caller asked if he would want to donate money help those in distress and the engineer agreed. The fraud happened in eight instalments and a case was registered at the Sector 39 police station.

In another incident, a Sector 77 resident was duped of ₹80,000 on the pretext of online delivery of liquor after he clicked on an ad on a social media site. The victim had placed an order for ₹6,200 after which he was sent a QR code. The fraud happened after the code was scanned and a case was later registered at the Sector 49 police station.

In the district, most cyber fraud cases are related to unified payments interface (UPI) and KYC of e-wallets, followed by fake offers of lottery and jobs. The third most reported offence is bogus ATM withdrawls. In 2019, the cyber cell received 3,050 complaints related to various online frauds. When the commissionerate was formed in January, cyber crime became a special focus area and the department was working on revamping the cell before the lockdown was put in place.