Lucrative “Diwali Bonanza” offers flooding social media have become one of the biggest concerns for police this festive season, as fraudsters increasingly use such advertisements as bait to trap unsuspecting shoppers.
Most of these offers that look “too good to be real” are indeed unreal and can leave victims poorer by lakhs, police warn.
“These are traps which effectively lure people into clicking on them to explore. And eventually, people are falling for the bait and losing money,” said an officer attached to the state CID (criminal investigation department).
This newspaper spoke to various police agencies and compiled a list of how fraudsters are exploiting data available on social media to target gullible people.
Fake advertisements
Police say every second advertisement people encounter on social media could be a potential trap.
“Some of these links could be malware, which can silently install itself on a phone or laptop and hand over remote access of the device to fraudsters,” said an officer of the CID’s cyber crime unit.
During the festive season, when online shopping peaks, advertisements offering huge discounts or absurdly low prices for premium products are especially dangerous and often embedded with malware.
Fraudsters mostly use greed and fear as tools to trap people, police officers said.
AI deepfake videos
Fraudsters are using artificial intelligence to create fake videos of celebrities endorsing particular products or schemes to convince people to invest in them.
“AI videos look authentic, and many viewers accept what they see at face value. There are many videos on social media where fraudsters have used deepfake techniques to create videos featuring celebrities,” said a Calcutta police officer.
Message forwarding
Many social media users encounter posts that prompt them to forward the message to 10 or more people. This is a technique for random sampling of target audiences.
“For example, if 100 people see this post and 50 of them forward it to 500 more people, the fraudsters can track the details of the 50 users who clicked on the link and also the 500 people to whom it was forwarded,” said a senior officer of Kolkata Police’s cyber crime cell.
“Once vulnerable users are identified, fraudsters start bombarding them with similar malware-laden links. Through this process, they also gather data on second and third-level recipients and track who clicks — identifying potential future victims,” the officer added.
‘Scratch’ scams
Police say fraudsters are using “scratch the card” offers to identify target audiences and prompt victims to click a “redeem now” button.
“These could be malicious links that should not be clicked upon,” an officer warned.
Fake hotel bookings
Police have received several complaints about fake hotel bookings through Internet search engines, where fraudsters have posted fraudulent details of hotels in popular tourist spots.
“There are many cases where Calcutta residents have booked hotels through online links and reached their destination only to find that no booking has been made in their names,” said an officer. A majority of cases involve hotels in Puri, sources said.
Police advice
If an offer looks too good to be real, it probably isn’t. Verify offers through official channels and avoid clicking on suspicious links, especially during high shopping periods like Diwali.