You must have received a message or an email from random account for online job where you just need an internet connection and a laptop/ mobile, surely if you are actively looking for remote jobs. Maybe someone reached you out that you won a lottery or that your sim card is blocked , your bank account needs to be recovered etc. These are some of the popular frauds people do online generally. They pick your data from different website you might have even unintentionally used in the past and use social media to know about the person and reach them out with a story. Let me narrate you a true story about it.
One of my cousin was looking for work online and he has posted on some Facebook groups related to online jobs, that he is looking for some online work and rest of the details about himself. Another day he received a message from someone named as Jai, that there is a typing work available, screenshot attached along here.
So, my cousin in dire excitement proceeded with this and made the payment to him as discussed on the messaging as the payment amount was just 199/-. So without giving any second thought he did it. when he reached the person through messages as he didn't received any call or any Email regarding the work for quiet some time. This Facebook guy stopped responding to the messages.
He narrated the whole story to me later out of a discussion, we only had his Facebook ID and no emails, no phone number and no further information.
Since I know some tools and techniques to which I started investigating this up. I noticed he only had few friends and no details could be extracted. After few deliberation I landed up with the email ID of the person through reverse techniques of Facebook forgot password (it's a very easy OSINT technique). Through the email I got the Google ID and his real picture, his recent locations. his companies he worked.
Overall we found the full details of the person and later we try reaching the guy but at last to no avail we couldn't extract our money. So it is not so happy ending there but the amount was small so we didn't bothered about it much. But we got a learning from it and this learning is to be shared with my readers too as Nelson Mandela once said,
“I never lose. I either win or I learn.”
So, please do not fall in any trap of such kind. whether the amount is big or small. Due to rising unemployment we are facing these things a lot. We need to keep a note on what to do and if you are looking for online jobs go for trusted websites and people will reach you out for work.
Other kind of SCAM, you must have seen 'Jamtara' series on Netflix, where they show some village boys extract money from people's account. Similarly another kind of fraud recently quiet seen is they try to poach people through What's App by posing as someone maybe their boss/ CEO of company etc. and so and sometimes as their Higher Boss in their company. I know a case where a company Manager received a What's APP message posing as to be someone from companies management and because the person daily deals with these kind of payment, we don't tend to see these in details and generally transfer money without verifying thinking that the boss might nag you later or might get pissed off that why the hell this man is not responding to me. Unfortunately that was fraud and the man was someone else and not from the company.
I have heard quite a few cases like these as well as also cases where people lost lakhs of money within seconds as these people know how to confront and pose themselves in front of you. So please be very careful and spread the awareness among the public about it.
Please educate your parents about it as they are not so tech savvy like you.
Read more about internet frauds and points to remember here. Take a look at Thugs of phishing, how they trap you over a call.
stay tuned for more.
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