Fake Customer Care Trap: Railway Official Loses ₹73,000 Over ₹448 Meesho Refund in Ahmedabad
Summarized by AI; it may make mistakes. Check important info
Summarized by AI; it may make mistakes. Check important info
An Ahmedabad-based Western Railway office superintendent lost ₹73,000 from his bank account after contacting a fraudulent customer care number found via a web search to claim a minor refund for an e-commerce order.
How the Scam Unfolded
Pradipkumar, a resident from Maninagar East, placed an online order for a ladies' dress worth ₹448 on the Meesho application late at night. Although the payment was debited, the order failed to register as confirmed. When he repeated the transaction, both amounts cleared, prompting him to seek a refund for the extra charge.
He searched for the platform's customer care helpline on Google. The number he dialled connected him to a cybercriminal posing as a representative. Under the guise of processing the refund, the fraudster instructed him to download an APK file via WhatsApp and initiate a video call to share his phone screen. Once Pradipkumar granted the requested permissions, his device froze. When he restarted the phone and checked his State Bank of India account, he discovered that ₹73,000 had been siphoned off through three unauthorised transactions.
The SEO Poisoning Menace
Investigators point to a growing cyber threat known as search engine optimisation (SEO) poisoning. Fraudsters manipulate search engine algorithms to push fake toll-free numbers for prominent e-commerce platforms and financial institutions to the top of search results. Unsuspecting consumers searching for legitimate helplines regularly fall into these traps, believing they are speaking to verified company agents before being manipulated into downloading malicious remote-access software.
Police Action and Helpline Response
Realising he had been cheated, Pradipkumar immediately dialled the national cyber crime helpline number 1930 to report the financial fraud. The Khokhra police station has registered a formal case against the unidentified holder of the WhatsApp number used in the crime and launched an investigation to trace the digital trail.
