Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, May 30: A student lost Rs 12,000 after falling prey to the convincing conversational skills of a cheater. The incident happened at Bajathur near Uppinangady in the taluk.

A final year engineering student living in Bajathur wanted to sell his motor bike. He had uploaded details of his vehicle on OLX site. Soon he got a call from cellphone No 8876992541. The caller evinced interest in buying the vehicle and asked how he can remit the amount. When the student asked the caller to send money through Phone Pe, he sent QR code to the student's WhatsApp number, duly claiming that if it is scanned through Phone Pe, the amount gets transferred to his account. He promised to come the next day for the two-wheeler.

The student expressed surprise and wanted to know whether scanning of the QR code provided by the caller will result in siphoning off money from his own account. The caller used his conversational skills to convince the student that the money will get deposited into his account. But when he scanned the QR code, Rs 12,000 got transferred from the student's account to the caller's account.

A complaint in this connection was filed in Uppinangady police station. The police have advised people to exercise caution and have full knowledge about the operations of Phone Pe and other apps as new crop of cheaters are emerging as the people are now largely aware about the dangers of providing OTP number to others.