Most of the fraud customer care numbers are from this state
2 min read 25 Feb 2023, 05:20 PM ISTMost of the fraud customer care numbers were registered in West Bengal, according to Cloudsek's report. The report flagged a total of 31,179 fraudulent phone numbers, out of which 56% are from India
PremiumWith the rise of digital era, thieves are leaving no option unexplored to dupe people and steal money. From electricity supply cut to winning a lottery, fraudsters are trapping people in different way. One such way is running fake customer care number network to trap customers. A recent report by Cloudsek.com has revealed that a total of 31,179 fraudulent phone numbers are actively duping people. Most of the Indian fraud customer care numbers were registered from West Bengal.
Out of them, a total of 17,285 numbers are Indian numbers, and others were non-Indian. 80% of these Indian numbers are still functional and cheating consumers. The research titled, ‘An Analysis of the Fake Customer Care Numbers In India’, was based on a sample of nearly 20,000 Indian fake customer care numbers.
West Bengal is the hub of fraud customer care numbers
The report revealed that West Bengal was the biggest hub of fake numbers. It accounts a total of 23% of the total registered fake customer care numbers. State's capital, Kolkata serves as the center for many large-scale operations. Delhi and Uttar Pradesh stood second in the race as they account for 19% of the total registered fake numbers. The report mentions the possible reason of large number of fraud numbers in these states due to the presence of various fake SIM card rackets in West Bengal, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The report has also highlighted that regardless of the fact that the phone numbers must be registered from these states, they can be used in different states.
Banking sector is the most targeted sector of customer care fraud
The report also threw light upon the sector wise data of the customer care fraud. It compared the presence of this network in different sectors like healthcare, insurance, banking, etc. The report found that 59% of total fraud customer calls were made in banking and finance industry. Healthcare sector stood at second rank in which 19.2% of total scam calls were made.
To bring authenticity in their numbers, scammers also used various means to impersonate genuine companies like their name, logo, similar sounding domains, etc.
Facebook is the prime medium to spread fake customer care numbers
Scammers use Facebook to trap users in their customer care scam. According to the report, 88% (15,271) of the fake customer care numbers were distributed via Facebook advertisements, posts, profiles, and pages. After Facebook, Twitter became the second most used medium for spreading fake contact number. 12% of total fake customer care numbers were made popular by using Twitter. Google was responsible for 14% of the remaining traffic.
