Online movie ticket booking portals are such a boon. They give us access to show-timings of each and every movie released in our city. We can view ticket prices, seat availability and even pre-order food with a few clicks. But as they say, nothing in this world is perfect. And these portals have their share of flaws. Like internet handling fees and the risk of online fraud.
A woman from Jankipuram, Lucknow, lost Rs.40,000 when she tried to claim a refund on cancelled movie tickets on one such portal.
According to the Times of India, the victim, Jhanvi, booked 4 movie tickets on March 30. Later, she cancelled them but the refund did not get credited to her bank account. When she called the customer helpline, the executive did not help her with the issue. Soon, she received a call from a fake agent who asked her to provide her debit card details so that the refund could be processed. But instead of getting her money back, her account revealed a debit of Rs.40,000.
Her case has been registered with Lucknow cyber cell but no arrests have been yet.
How did the scam take place?
This vishing (Voice phishing) fraud is not uncommon. Earlier, a woman in Pune lost Rs.82,000 to a similar scam. The modus operandi of fraudsters is to call the victim and convince them that they are real customer care representatives. Then they ask for personal information such as online banking customer ID, card details, OTP etc to gain access to victim’s accounts and steal their money.
To safeguard ourselves from vishing fraud it is important to remember that no bank or company executive asks for sensitive information over the phone. Disclosing this information is a very, very bad idea.