After electricity bill fraud and OTP fraud, online scamsters are sending text messages to people asking them to claim the premium of an insurance policy which they had never invested in.
Police said spurious links were being sent to the mobile phones and one can lose phone’s data and banking details by clicking on them.
A Kasba resident recently received a text message saying: “Insurance policy 248xxxx79 is credited to your e-insurance account 1000xxxx573 with NSDL NIR. Login at httpsxxxx.in to check the policy.”
The man said he never had any insurance policy bearing that number.
Officers at Lalbazar said they had learnt about many cases where people are getting such text messages about insurance policies that the recipients had never invested in.
“This is a new way to dupe people. One should not let himself or herself be lured into thinking that he could claim the premium of an insurance policy he never had. That’s a mistake and that can only leave the person poorer through online fraud,” said an officer.
Police said text messages sent by fraudsters contained a link, clicking which a spyware would be downloaded on the phone. The spyware will compromise the details on the targetted phone.
Such messages can be sent by an individual or through a bulk SMS system.
“It is as dangerous as screen sharing with the fraudsters, where they can have remote access to your phone,” said the officer.
A few years ago, gangs had perpetrated the same fraud by calling up targets posing as insurance company officials.
“Earlier, the fraudsters used to call up people saying that a large amount of premium was waiting to be transferred to his or her account. They would then seek the target’s banking details such as the personal identification number or the ATM card’s CVV. If anyone had shared the details, the fraudsters would use them to dupe him or her,” the officer said.
Now fraudsters have shifted to the online mode and are directly sending spying links to the mobile phones of their targets.
Metro has been reporting on the new trends of online frauds, including those where scamsters are sending text messages to people saying their power supply would be disconnected if they did not pay their outstanding bills through a link mentioned in the messages.
In the majority of cases, the fear of disconnection of power supply prompted people to react and either call the number or initiate a payment through the spurious link.
“Many such Kolkatans have been duped in name of the power-cut fraud. The fraud of loan-apps is also rampant. But this modus operandi – to lure people into claiming an insurance premium is relatively new,” said a senior police officer.