Advance online payment fraud has increased by 160% since 2018. Customers pay in advance but do not receive their products.
Cybercrime bureau registers 50-70 cases of online advance money fraud every day. A total of 7,693 cases of advance online payment fraud have been registered at the cyber crimes police station, Bengaluru so far this year.
Advance online payment fraud relates to instances where customers are paying online for products but not receiving them. There have also been instances of vendors being threatened without any advance payment after being tricked into selling products.
Consumers have also complained about being threatened by the fraudsters. Shirisha Salman, who works in a telecom company said, ‘The fraudster messages me that I can go and complain anywhere, I am not bothered. I work for the entire month; the money which I will get is already spent in one day.” Another victim Srinivas Subramanian who is a software engineer says “I had to sell my bike, my chain because of the online payment fraud. The fraudster blackmailed and threatens me that he will go and kill my parents if I don’t pay him the entire amount”.
The number of cases registered is a 160% increase in the 5,036 cases registered in 2018. The incidence of advance online payment fraud has been increasing in the last two years with only 2,023 cases registered in 2017.
The Inspector of the Cyber Crime Bureau said, “Whatever happens with the buyer it happens with their consent, no one forces them to do anything. Cyber Crime police station is doing their best to solve the cases but sometimes it’s really hard to track the fraudsters.”
Cybercrime expert Mr. Ranganath said, ‘If you go to the website we should check the URL and use only those website which is secure.”
Mr Ranganath also added that we should not trust the cheap deals that we see online. Not everything cheap economically is worth it. Frauds were always present. The only difference is that earlier they used to take place offline and now it is online.
