A Delhi woman lost Rs. 4 lakh after she clicked a link which promised her a job opportunity at a leading e-commerce company. Know how this online scam works and protect yourself.
A new online scam has surfaced which is targeting job seekers and stealing their money. In the latest incident, a Delhi woman was swindled out of Rs. 4,00,000 on the pretext of a job opportunity. Looking for a job online, she was sent a URL via SMS by fraudsters and was asked to click on it. She did that! Soon after, she found her device was hacked into and an amount of ₹4 lakh was taken from her account. Fortunately, the police have arrested two men from Shakarpur in East Delhi and Noida in association with this incident. Four other accused are on the run. Read on to know how this online jobs scam works and how you can protect yourself.
As per an Indian Express report, the woman was offered a job in a leading e-commerce company and was asked to click a link sent to her via SMS. According to the FIR, after the woman clicked on the link, money was withdrawn from her account. It is unclear whether she filled in any data after visiting the link or just clicking the link was enough for the hacker to access the victim’s device.
Woman gets swindled out of Rs. 4 lakh in a scary online scam
India has a large working age population and people are always looking for job opportunities. These scammers use the desperation of these job seekers to their own advantage and make false promises to steal money from them. In this particular case, the scammers pretended that there was a job opportunity and communicated with the victim asking her to click a link.
While details are not available, it could either be a phishing incident where the victim could have submitted personal information to secure the job or there could be malware which installs upon visiting the website and it siphons the data and sends it to the hacker. Either way, this is a scary online scam.
In a statement, DCP (Southeast) Esha Pandey told Indian Express, “The accused disclosed during interrogation that they used to generate links, and send them to random people, promising employment in a major e-commerce company. As soon as the victim clicked the link, they would hack the victim’s mobile and view an OTP sent to the victim to initiate a transaction”.
While two accused have been arrested and the search for four more is ongoing, this is not an isolated incident and scammers are pulling similar crimes all over the country. To protect yourself, make sure to follow the steps below.
How to protect yourself from online scams while job hunting
Step 1:
Never reveal any financial information till you have been appointed in the role. No company asks for that data prior to appointment.
Step 2:
Always look for jobs through either the official website of the company or registered job search platforms.
Step 3:
Always ask for the name and designation of the person seeking your job interview. Make sure to check it online for authenticity.
Step 4:
Never click on any link shared by anyone if you do not recognize it or are skeptical about it. Always ask them to keep communications to emails, Google Meet, Teams and similar platforms.
Step 5:
Always carefully examine any document that you receive from the organization. The fake ones often have spelling mistakes and typos.
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