Fraud alert! Woman loses nearly ₹1 lakh due to fake number scam on Google. What is it? How to stay safe?

As India moves towards a digital-first approach, online frauds have become common, and scammers often change their modus operandi to scam unsuspecting internet users.

From the elderly to youngsters, and from influencers to common people, internet users across all ages and groups have become the target of scammers. In a recent video, Instagram content creator Shreya Mitra said she was duped out of ₹93,600 while booking a hotel through Google.

In an Instagram post, Mitra said that while booking a hotel for her upcoming trip to Puri during Holi, she Googled Mayfair Heritage Puri and called the listed number that popped up as the first result.

She then contacted the number, unaware that it was a scam, and made the booking through UPI by paying ₹93,600. Later, when she asked for an email invoice, she realised she had been scammed.

Mitra’s experience is just one of the many ways online scammers dupe people and steal their hard-earned money.

Google search scam

Mayfair Heritage Puri is not the only business targetted by scammers to dupe unsuspecting customers.

According to The Washington Post, websites like Delta Airlines and Coinbase have also had fraudulent numbers listed as their customer service contact at the top of search results.

The report, citing experts, said that it takes about 22 minutes to trick Google into putting a fraudulent number in a prominent spot for search results.

Fake numbers of banks, airlines, hotels, repair shops, and more can be placed in prominent positions on search pages, where people are likely to find them and call, unknowingly falling victim to the scam. 

Scammers exploit methods used by internet merchants and take advantage of Google’s search listings and business information, which are not strongly moderated, to display fraudulent phone numbers and scam people out of money.

How to stay safe?

While most of the time, you will find the correct information on a Google listing, it is better to be safe than sorry.

The best way to avoid this scam is to go to the official website of the company. If the website has listed a contact number, it should be safe to call.

Scammers nowadays go to the lengths of creating legitimate-looking fake websites in order to extract money. However, keeping an eye on the links to the websites is the way to go about it.