Google Pay fraud: Odisha man loses Rs 53K after clicking on link

Bhubaneswar: In another case of cyber fraud, a man was allegedly duped of Rs 53,000 within a fraction of seconds after clicking on a link sent to him on Google Pay app. The fraud victim from Bhubaneswar, Ram Chandra Prusty lodged a complaint at the Cyber Police Station in this regard today.

As per the complaint, Prusty received a call on his mobile phone from a Google Pay Customer Care representative few days back. He came to know about the caller’s identity from the Truecaller app installed in the mobile phone.

As Prusty received the call, the person on the other side told him he has won reward points worth Rs 4,000. Also, the caller said Prusty can encash the reward points by clicking on a link sent on Google Pay app. When Prusty clicked the link as told to him, Rs 53,000 were debited from his three bank accounts connected to the Google Pay account. Subsequently his phone got hanged.

Prusty then lodged a complaint alleging cyber fraud at the Cyber Police Station in Bhubaneswar.

In a related case, an elderly man was defrauded of Rs 36,000 by a caller impersonating as an executive of e-commerce giant Amazon.

As per reports, the elderly man, Pramod Chandra Rath from Unit-IV area in Bhubaneswar got a call from a person identifying himself as an executive of Amazon on December 23, 2020. The caller asked Rath to deposit Rs 36,000 towards GST for the orders he placed on the e-commerce platform. Also, the caller assured him to return the amount along with some gifts.

Subsequently Rath deposited Rs 36,000 in four installments in the account provided to him by the caller. But neither any gift item was provided to him nor the amount was returned to him. When Rath and his daughter contacted the company, they realised that a fraud has been committed.

Based on a complaint filed by the elderly man’s daughter at Kharvel Nagar Police Station, an investigation has been launched.