Dialling customer care numbers can land you in trouble. Here’s how
2 min read 25 Feb 2023, 04:37 PM ISTIn search of the customer care number of a company or service care provider, people often end up dialling a fake customer care number and in the falling trap of fraudsters
PremiumDialling a company's customer care number after finding it on internet might make you a target of scammers and fraudsters. Most often, people search on internet to find the customer care number of a bank, healthcare provider, or telecom service provider. However, there are chances that they might fall in the trap of fraudsters who lure aggrieved customers to steal money.
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According to a recent report by Cloudsek.com, fake customer care number is one of the best ways for fraudsters to trap anxious users who want speedy resolution of their problems and end up sharing details like OTP, etc with them. They follow a common process to make their way in the google results for customer care numbers search by users.
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As per the report, these scams work in a similar fashion for years where things start with buying fake sim cards, using SEO techniques to make place for these fake numbers in google searches, etc. Know the step-by-step process of how these fake customer care scams work.
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How does fake customer care scams work?
-These scams work in a more or less similar fashion over the years. Firstly, fraudsters begin with buying untraceable sim cards with the help of dark net. Sim cards are purchased by using fake identities making them hard to trace.
-After preparing themselves for calling, they inject these fake numbers as customer care numbers of companies and service providers by using social media posts, websites with search engine optimization techniques, and advertisements. This help them get a wider reach and increase their accessibility on search engines.
-With an increased accessibility on internet, many customers end up dialling these numbers after searching for a customer care number of a company.
-On contacting these fake call centers, fraudsters try to retrieve information that can be used to collect money from the victims. Customers are asked for financial information, OTP, via social engineering methods.
-With OTP and other financial information, scammers get the access of victims'bank account details and they use it to purchase gift cards, transfer money to other account, etc.
This is the main reason why, people should be very careful while availing a customer care service of a company. It is better to use official website of these companies to contact them
