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.
