In 1925, Victor Lustig, a con artist, sold the Eiffel tower to a scrap dealer and escaped with the cash. A lot has changed since then and a lot has also remained the same. Con artists are still around. Only now, they use the internet to accomplish the good old task of coning gullible people. The arrest of two Nigerian nationals for duping a woman of
Rs 8 lakh is proof that as long as there are gullible people there will be con artists. The swiftness with which the police cracked the case and made the arrests is commendable. The accused apparently befriended the woman on Facebook through a fake account. After gaining the confidence of the woman, the accused informed her that he had sent a gift. Two days later the
woman received a call from the Customs (a fake call) asking
her to pay Rs 52,000 as fees for clearance of the gift. What followed
was a series of requests to part with cash on some pretext
or the other and the woman complied because the accused
said the gift was worth Rs 1.6 crore. It was only when she was
warned by a banker that she could
be a victim of online fraud that her
eyes opened.
This could have happened to anyone
with little knowledge of the
world of online fraud and with no
knowledge of how systems work.
Fraudsters often pick on naïve,
trusting and gullible people who
are easy to convince. Some time
back, agents promising work visas to Australia succeeded in
duping job seekers by inducing them to part with cash in lieu
of forged certificates and documents. The modus operandi of
fraudsters for getting information on insurance policies is to
pose as staff of the insurance company. Details of the target are
usually picked up from the telephone directory.
Online fraud is no longer a new phenomenon. In UK, people
lost nearly 700 million pounds sterling to online fraudsters in
2014. In one case, the accused called up a bank pretended to
be an account holder and got all the KYC details changed. It
was only when he started transferring money that the original
account holder was alerted. Fraudsters sometimes send perfectly
looking emails which contain virus which read details
stored on the computer or mobile phone. While crime fighting
agencies are gearing up to fight online fraud, people have
to start acquainting themselves with the modus operandi of
fraudsters. Although the finger print is quickly becoming the
norm for mobile phones, other devices need to be password
protected. One must also be more careful when interacting
with strangers on social media. Perhaps, the old fashioned
way of seeking detailed information of the person could prove
to be safer in the long term. Lastly, don’t part with any cash no
matter how big the reward. There always is a catch.
