Jamtara 2.0 - Scamsters have upgraded. Have you?

Online scamsters have leveled up. What about you? Cyber scams are on the rise and this blog is to tell you about a personal incident that happened today afternoon.

While I have not watched Jamtara but I understand that it’s a series on phishing scams where unsuspecting people are politely asked for their card details in the pretext of their card getting blocked. If you have seen the series, you get the context. Being out in the open now and there being awareness around it, the scamsters seem to have evolved. I had my first experience today. We were able to pick the signs and diffuse the situation. But can only imagine how many people are getting tricked by this and having to lose their hard-earned money.

Getting right to the point.

BACKGROUND

We decided to discard a few old items including a metal closet.

I put out a post on different Facebook groups about the closet to reach out to potential buyers who would need it and be interested.

As soon as the post went live, I got a few messages in my Facebook inbox around 11:15 asking for the price and details. The usual conversations were on and among them there was one message from one Arun. He asked for my number. While I was wondering what’s there to really speak over a call that can’t be discussed here I hesitantly gave my number. About 3 hours of this at 2:30 PM, I got a call wherein True Caller identified the number as Arun Kumar. Amidst my ongoing work, it didn’t occur to me that this was the same person. He wanted details on the closet. He went on to add that he’s from Shanti Nagar (and something else which I don’t clearly recall). I cross checked if he was actually from Mumbai since I hadn’t heard of Shanti Nagar here.  The following conversation then happened. Don’t take it for word to word but as a gist to get an understanding of what occurred. I have translated it in English while the conversation was in the North Indian Hindi accent.

WHAT HAPPENED

He: How much is it for?

Me: INR X

He: Can you give it at INR Y?

Some negotiation later

Me: That’s fine. We want to get it out soon.

He:  I’ll pay you the complete amount through GPay. I am in Pune and someone from my family will come in one or 1.5 hours to pick it up.

Me: Fine.

He: I’m buying it for sure. You can mark the product as ‘Sold’ online. What’s your Gpay number?

Me: The same number that we are speaking on.

He: Okay, send me location on WhatsApp.

Me: Drop a Hi through WA on this number.

Immediately, I receive the below message on WhatsApp.

During this whole conversation for reasons unknown my intuitive mind was saying that something seems amiss, I tried to silence it and just went about as is.

3:35 PM – Almost an hour later that is, I message him on WhatsApp again asking to confirm if he’s buying since others were also asking. The message didn’t go through. See the single tick.

4:13 PM – Call from same number. He says this person wants to make the payment now speak to him.

Me: Which person?

He: The one who’s going to make the payment

Me: On what number am I to connect with him?

He: You don’t have to connect with him. Just speak to him.

My intuition of something fishy is only getting stronger and this confusing conversation went on for a while. Finally, Arun gave the phone to another person who spoke and introduced himself as the manager at an Army canteen. I said okay. The canteen manager guy again asked for payment details. I told him that I had already informed Arun about it and asked to GPay on the same number. He said I’ll send you a message on WhatsApp.

Me: Whose number was that from which I received a WA message earlier?

By now I was kind of sure that they were fooling around and said wait, I think I’m confused. Who am I talking with? The Army canteen guy fumbled and then said Laxman something.  He went on to say how he’s only in charge of the payment and why am I doubting and stuff.

I cut the call.

4:18 PM (A minute later after I cut the call)

Arun: Madam, he will make the full payment. Someone will come in 1 or 1.5 hours to pick the closet.

My husband walked into the room where I was. He didn’t have a background of what had happened earlier. With the call being on loudspeaker and the manner that I was handling he took to speaking on the phone.

Venky: What happened? When is your friend going to be here? What’s the confusion about payment?

Laxman: I am in charge of making the payment. I don’t know anything else.

Venky: Okay, so send it on GPay.

Laxman: Check your bank balance so after the payment you can be sure that you have received the amount.

Venky and I check the account.

(At this point we both know we are having the conversation only to understand how they are approaching this whole thing, record the call and highlight this scam)

Laxman: I have sent Re. 1 for you to check if it’s come. We receive a QR image on WhatsApp but absolutely no details.(They immediately deleted the image as soon as the call was done. Below attached for your reference).

Venky: We haven’t received anything yet.

Canteen manager: Scan it and then you check.

Venky: Why should we scan if we are receiving the amount? We scan when we pay to others.

Laxman: This is made from army canteen account. You understand the secrecy that’s needed for such accounts. Therefore you need to scan first and check.

Venky: Either you GPay on this number or we’ll send our bank details and you can transfer on that.

Laxman:  Why do you doubt us? Just scan and check once. I worked in the army. We work so hard and go through so many sacrifices for you all.

Venky: Which battalion?

Laxman: Gwalior 6090(I forgot the year he mentioned. You can listen to it in the recorded call that’s attached). I am at Gwalior

Venky: Where are you now?

Laxman: Gwalior

Venky: If you are in Gwalior why would you want to buy a closet in Mumbai.

Laxman: I’m only the person in charge for the payment. You scan and check and let me know if you have received the Re.1

Venky: Let’s do one thing. When your person comes here to pick the closet, we’ll receive the payment from you.

Laxman: The system will get closed now. By that time it’ll get too late.

You should listen to the whole recording to understand their tone and manner of convincing you to do what they say. The sound starts mid-way when we felt suspicious.

Below is a step by step process of how it works:

Step 1: Upon seeing your ad on any social platforms, they’ll ask you for your number to speak to you

Step 2: When they call, they’ll negotiate just for the sake of it

Step 3: (In this case) I had asked for payment through Google Pay though

Step 4: Through WhatsApp they’ll send you a QR image

(This is the key thing. Scanning the QR image is for making payments and not for receiving. Once you scan the image, the immediately next thing they’ll ask you to do is to put your PIN which you do on your own device. What actually happens is the QR code could be for payment of any amount that they want. Once you put the PIN the transfer would complete and you will lose your money. The amount would have transferred into their account without you having to share any PIN).

Step 5: They’ll ask you to scan that and let them know if you have received the Re. 1

Step 6: They will keep insisting you to scan

The Audio Recording

Listen to how the conversation panned out. We have gotten so used to make digital payments that it might not even occur to us that we could be duped.

After we ended the call within seconds he deleted the QR image that was shared and by the time I checked for the Facebook chat with Arun to save a screenshot, I couldn’t find that either.

Be really cautious about how you can be looted of your hard earned money and don’t fall into these traps.

BEWARE! Digital payments are not bad. The way digital is being used can be.