Man calls 'Uber customer care' to lodge complaint, loses Rs 5 lakh to online scam

NEW DELHI: A man who called customer care to complain that he was overcharged Rs 113 in an Uber trip allegedly lost Rs 5 lakh to a scam. Pradeep Chowdhary, a resident of Safdarjung, Delhi, fell victim to this online scam. The police have registered a case on his complaint.

Pradeep booked a taxi to go to Gurugram for Rs 205, but Uber charged him Rs 318. Following this, the man decided to lodge a complaint to the customer service of Uber which he received from Google.

"The driver suggested I could get a refund by calling customer care. I obtained the number from Google, '6289339056,' which redirected to '6294613240,' and then to Rakesh Mishra at '9832459993.'", Pradeep's complaint reads.

"Subsequently, he instructed me to download the 'Rust Desk app' from the Google Play Store. After that, he asked me to open PayTM and message 'rfnd 112' for the refund amount. When questioned about providing my phone number, he claimed it was for account verification," Chowdhary added.

Later Pradeep came to know about the fraud when he lost money from his bank account following the instructions given by the fraud team. He lost his money in four instances. The police have registered an FIR in the case and started an investigation.

Recently, a 31-year-old doctor lost Rs 1 lakh in another fraud case in Navi Mumbai. The doctor ordered an item worth Rs.300 from an online shopping site. Then a person called from an unknown number, introducing himself as a company representative, and gave some instructions, pretending to complete the order.

Following the instructions given by the person identified as the company representative, first Rs 95,000 and then Rs 5000 were withdrawn from the doctor's account. Both incidents have been reported amid the rampant online scams in the country.