If you are planning to find a suitable renter or buyer for your real estate property with the help of a real estate broker site, then you need to be extra cautious against it. cyber criminals, These days, online fraudsters are locating their potential targets from these realty broker portals, posing as a buyer or a renter, whatever you are looking for. While talking to you, they will show the urgency of paying money online to your bank account. However, their actual motto is very different. By showing promptness on their part, they will confuse you by reducing your concentration and take out your confidential information by asking you to click on the link provided or scan the QR code. According to cybercrime experts, no one needs to be scanned. QR code or click on any given link to accept money. In fact, a receiver need not do anything to receive the money, it is the sender who is required to follow the rules and guidelines regarding online money transfer.
Sharing his recent experience with a cybercriminal, a victim who remained calm during the conversation said, “I was trying to have a property on rent and posted it on a real estate broker website. Next few Within minutes, I got a call. A man posing as an army officer insisted on finalizing the deal expeditiously, asked for some pictures of the property and said he was fine with the property. Immediately, I got his PAN card, army canteen card and aadhar card. The caller insisted on me to share his Gpay number linked with my bank account so that he can transfer two months rent in advance. In fact, he asked me Also asked for UPI account number, which I politely declined.”
The owner of the smart property further said, “Later the caller said that he is sending 5 as a trial transfer to my account. Once the money is credited to my account, it will send the remaining amount to my account via UPI transfer. However, to my surprise, he sent me a QR code to scan. But, before scanning the given QR code, I first transferred my entire amount to my other bank account and then scanned the QR code, which failed. The caller again sent a QR code and the transaction failed once again. After doing this a few more times, the caller got angry and disconnected the call.”
Pointing out to online QR code fraud, New Delhi-based cybercrime expert Amit Dubey said, “It is called QR code scan fraud, where an unknown person will call a potential victim and receive the amount from the given QR code. However, the recipient should remember that there is no need to scan or click on any given link to receive the money. This is for sending money to another’s account.”
The cyber crime expert further said that one should not even click on the given link as online fraudsters phish all your credentials like bank account, your customer id, PAN card and Aadhar card number etc in one click. He said that the QR code is like a web link and the recipients are advised to keep these things in mind while transacting such money with an unknown person.
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