You must have heard about people losing money to fraudsters who pose as bank officials and show fear of debit cards or accounts getting blocked. There were incidents when people got duped while trying to purchase a second-hand item on reselling sites like Olx. In a recent incident of cyber fraud, a Mumbai-based young lawyer lost over Rs 44,000 to scammers in multiple transactions to a scammer who posed as the owner of a wine shop. The lawyer was trying to order beer online for home delivery.


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The lawyer reportedly searched for a beer shop contact number online and when he called on the number, the scammer lured him into paying for two bottles first. Then he asked for additional payments through QR codes for generating bills and promised that money will be refunded. The scammer lured the lawyer into making multiple payments by sending QR codes of specified payments on the pretext of returning the money.


The victim followed the instructions until he smelled something fishy and till then, the lawyer had already transferred over Rs 44,000 to the scammer. The scammer later stopped picking up calls and blocked the lawyer's phone number. The lawyer then filed a police complaint, reported Hindustan Times.


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How to be safe from such scams?
One should keep in mind that scammers update their phone number as owners of grocery, bakery, wine and other shops on Google and when someone calls on these numbers, they get duped by them. Below are some precautions that you can take to stay safe from online financial fraud:


* If you are calling on any unknown number for ordering something online, don't make advance payments. If possible, go and buy from the shop.
* Order things online from only reputed platforms.
* Do you know that you don't need to scan any QR code for receiving money? Yes, that is true. So, whenever someone sends you a QR code for making payments to you, don't fall into the trap. Also, you are not required to enter your UPI pin for receiving payments. So, be careful next time.
* If you have lost money to cybercriminals, immediately call 1930 and share transaction details so that the same can be blocked to save your hard-earned money.