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-   -   Fake / Fraud / Scam Calls (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/91227-fake-fraud-scam-calls-32.html)

The phrase "Trust but verify" is something to live by, but even more so while living in India where these scam calls and messages we are at the epicentre off with no respite in sight.

These days I have kept my iPhone to silence unknown callers, wherein the calls are auto rejected and sent to voicemail instead. Only during specific times where I am expecting a call from a delivery agent or such, is when I temporarily disable it and set to ring as normal. I always reverse search on Truecaller before ever dialling back.

I understand that living with mistrust on any approach is not the ideal way of life, but when 9/10 calls a day are either from scammers or just sales calls. It is frustrating. Heck, I have been so much bombarded by the "Bank RM" and the "Demat Advisors" who also happen to keep track of the accounts savings to instead promote their own agenda which may or may not be suitable for my needs but provides them with their sales target and big hefty commissions. i.e Sale of ULIPS and there random investment products with "guarantee returns" nothing written on paper of course.

Sincerely, we always have to be on guard whenever it comes to finances. With the emergence of AI, these scams are going to be much more devastating with identity impersonations and spoofing.

Whenever 'Indian army personnel' is mentioned in any deal (OLX, marketplace etc), it's a clear scam. This has been around for such a long time and still people are falling for it.

Good to see that you owned them and bust their scam.

My wife's cousin lost 1.6 L over a so called video KYC of ICICI credit card application. It seems people like to rather scam than earn honestly.

Since they used OTP,credit card company charged him and he had to pay it.

Be careful in all transactions.

Can you please share if this was a KYC of a card already in use? Or a new application where video KYC is facilitated by the bank staff?

With the number of ways of trying to dupe people by these scamsters increasing everyday, it is mainly on our selves to have as many safeguards in place as possible. Me and my wife use apps like truecaller to block all the scam calls, and don't pick calls of any unknown numbers unless expecting any specific calls from known person , delivery etc. Over a year of blocking all the scam calls and numbers , and we do see the no of such calls received is down to 1 or 2 rather than 7 to 8 calls previously, which seems like this approach is working to a certain extent. Still need to be on our guard all the time to not get trapped by these scamsters ..

Another fake Army wala story here...

I have recently listed one of my Mumbai apartments for sale on Magicbricks and few other portals.

2-3 days back i got a call from an "Army Major".

I understood this is a scam the moment he addressed himself as a Major.

Myself being an hardcore defense enthusiast and having almost a dozen serving and ex army/navy served relatives in the extended family it hardly took me a second to realize this guy is fake, his way of talking and accent was a dead giveaway. But i decided to continue for some time to have fun.

All below conversation was in Hindi...

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Major Saheb : Jai Hind, got your details from xyz portal, i am Mr XXX Army Major posted in Delhi (native of Jharkhand) and being transferred to Mumbai hence looking for an accommodation for my family.
I am not aware of the geography of Mumbai, can you tell me how far is this property from "Army Cantonment"

Me : which army cantonment, Mumbai doesn't have any major army cantonment but some small outposts only, and i named a few.

Major Saheb : Sorry but i am not sure, my senior has not informed me which one, just informed me i am being transferred to Mumbai.

Me: But army gives you accommodation why do you need to get another ?

Major Saheb : Those are very small units in old buildings and i want to keep my family at some good place.

Me : but you might be posted in Mumbai for few years only and my flat is for sale not rent.

Major Saheb: i am planning to buy it as i want my family to settle down in Mumbai.

Me : Ok, how do you plan to proceed ?

Major Saheb: Currently i am posted on a "critical mission" and cannot visit Mumbai to check the apartment but looking at the photos i liked your apartment a lot, i will pay you a token amount and you can hold this apartment for me and i will soon plan a visit to Mumbai to close this deal.

I kind of understood where it will go from here now and decided to end this topic..

Me: Dekh bhai, neither you are a Major nor from Jharkhand, i was just having some fun, shared some "pleasantries" with him and hung up.

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I often get the sim-card blocked, Bank account blocked and the occasional FedEX scam calls and now this.

I have now conditioned my mind to believe every call/mail/sms is a scam and act accordingly.

Keeping fingers crossed and hoping that i manage to stay safe.

This happened on 7th September 2024. My relative was interested in getting a new card. The bank had a promotion post on Facebook and he posted his interest as a public comment. The criminals obtained his contact info and scammed him posing as employees of ICICI bank.

I respond saying "only Tamil". Being in NCR it works most time & they hang up.

Once during a "you have an undelivered package" scam attempt they actually transferred to a Tamil speaking agent which I dont know a word of!

Shows the level of sophistication!

I posted sometime back on this.

I had listed my apartment for rent in Chennai in couple of sites.

Got a call saying Army Officer, sent some fake army id cards. Said was posted in airport, was not comfortable with this, as I have seen only CISF primarily on duty.

His ID cards were in listed having lived in Telangana right from schooling, asked my neighbor to talk to him in Telugu he want not able to respond back.

Blocked the number.

All of you be careful if you list your apartments.

Being an Army Veteran I can straight away identify that this is a scam based on following observations :

Firstly, the PO has been placed by a CISF unit (which is in no way connected to Indian Army, one comes under MoD while the other under ministry of Home Affairs) while the e mail id says indianarmydepartment followed by a gmail id. Any Army department e mail will be ALWAYS be from @gov.in and not from @gmail or @yahoo etc.

Secondly, the photo on the WhatsApp page in Army Uniform is of a Brigadier (from the badge on his beret (headgear)). Also he is wearing red stars of rank (not seen clearly of which rank) which are not in practice in any regiment of Indian Army. An officer of the Indian Army will never ask for a quotation for official work on any social platform like WhatsApp. It will always be in form of an official mail @gov.in. Also, he is identifying himself with a name without giving out his Rank (Brigadier) and the standard of english he is using is pathetic to say the least.

Thirdly, pl read the terms and conditions in P.O. Laughable. There is nothing called as Defence process. It is either on GeM portal or is as per DPP.

Pl be aware, just checking the mail, procedure of payment, name without rank etc will give you enough indication that it's a fraud. Hope it helps.

While there is certainly satisfaction in giving it back to potential scammers and feels good to waste their time, I urge everyone not to engage with potential scammers. As soon as you have identified a potential scammer, disconnect and block.

You never know what details they can glean from extended conversations. There are increasingly sophisticated scams where AI generated voices can be used to fool family members. Why give a potential scammer an extended sample of your voice and voice pattern? Or any extra information at all?

Being A Dentist by Profession, I receive numerous calls a day from patients, mostly unknown numbers.
Thanks to Airtel for intimating "Suspected Spam" when a Caller is calling to Scam. Unfortunately, TrueCaller is not consistent for Iphones as yet. For Andriod devices TrueCaller works perfectly.
So, with this new Airtel feature I have stopped picking up "Suspected Spam" calls.
Time Saved. Less Headache. Can put more energy in doing my RxZ135 bike build.

If you haven't yet, immediately request Apple to block the cards. If they spend those, the ball is out of your court.

RBI's new guidelines relieve crores of users, banking calls will now come from these two numbers only

The RBI has recently allocated phone number series 1600 and 140 to banks and financial institutions for financial transactions, marketing calls, and SMS. This initiative aims to protect individuals from scammers.

https://www.indiatvnews.com/technolo...5-01-20-972151

I have created multiple phone book entries numbers like +967, +963, etc., Then i have blocked them. So all calls starting with +967, +963 are blocked, automatically.