New Delhi, July 9: Days after fake vouchers in the name of supermarket chain D-Mart and Jet Airways went viral, another fake voucher is being sent on WhatsApp and email offering goodies from  popular e-commerce site Amazon. Once you click on the link mentioned in such fake vouchers, it redirects you to website seeking personal information, which is later used to dupe you.

At least three messages that were widely shared on WhatsApp have been reported over the past year, where people were allegedly duped on the pretext of jaw-dropping offers from popular band names.  One of the forwarded messages read, “D-Mart is giving FREE INR2500 shopping voucher to celebrate its 17th anniversary. Click here to get yours (link). Enjoy”. An FIR was registered at Powai police station on June 19 in this regard.

Another message appeared in May this year in the name of Jet Airways. The message read, “Jetairways Airline is giving 2 Free Tickets to everyone. To celebrate their 25th anniversary. Click here to get yours (link).” The airline later clarified that it was a fake offer.

In February, a WhatsApp message claimed that Adidas was giving free footwear. “Adidas is giving away 3000 Free Pair of shoes to celebrate its 93rd anniversary. Get your free shoes at (link),” read the message. The multinational company had later denied having made that offer.  Besides, there have been several fake offers doing rounds on WhatsApp and other social media platforms that lured people by offering exciting schemes under popular brand names.

“Normally, the accused use this modus operandi for something called ‘credential harvesting’. They basically try to get a detailed profile of people on their database, which is then used to target the people… stay away from such links," Maharashtra Inspector General (cyber crime) Brijesh Singh told Indian Express.

By fake vouchers, fraudsters either collects personal information of users to carry out cyber attack later or ask people to pay 10 per cent of the total amount offered in the fake voucher, which they flee with.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 09, 2018 03:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).