Cyber fraud while applying for a loan on Flipkart and lost about 90,000

Cyber ​​​​crimes are increasing continuously. In such a situation, a lot of awareness is spread about it. Despite this, many people keep falling prey to these fake schemes. One of the most common scams involves part-time jobs, but this time it was not a job scam but a man who lost a lot of money while trying to apply for a loan. Surprisingly, this incident happened through the Flipkart app. Let us know what is the whole matter.

This incident happened with a postmaster from Ludhiana. Where he lost Rs 87,000 after falling prey to a loan-related cyber fraud. The victim Sarabjit Singh, a resident of Kaile village in the Sudhar area, had applied for a loan of Rs 2 lakh through the Flipkart app. A few days after submitting the application, on December 4, he received a call from a person posing as a representative of the app, claiming that his loan had been approved. However, the caller told him that the loan could not be disbursed due to incomplete KYC (Know Your Customer) verification.

To fix this, Sarabjit was asked to click on a link and fill out an online KYC form. Believing it to be a legitimate process, he followed the instructions. During this, he was asked to make a token payment of Rs 5 to finalize the verification. But instead of Rs 5, a hefty amount of Rs 86,998 was deducted from his bank account. Shocked by the sudden disconnect, Sarabjit immediately contacted the person, but the person disconnected the call and switched off the phone.

Sarabjit then approached the police in Jagraon and the case was transferred to the cyber crime department for further investigation. According to ASI Jagroop Singh, an FIR has been registered under Section 318(4) for cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property under BNS, and Section 66(D) of the Information Technology (IT) Act. The officials are now tracing the bank accounts in which the amount was transferred.

To avoid falling prey to frauds of this kind, a person has to be pretty vigilant about receiving calls at numbers or suspicious links. Authenticity verification of such calls or messages is usually performed while completing KYC or being asked to pay something. People are asked to avoid clicking on links they do not want to, and they should not give out personal details and any banking information without cross-checking the source. So, for making a transaction, it's best to do official banking or approved sites and applications. It's safe to get loans approved over authorized banks, rather than some third-party application site like Flipkart.