How scamsters used WhatsApp chat to dupe Serum Institute of India of Rs 1 cr - How you can avoid such online frauds - TIPS

WhatsApp Fraud: Well-known vaccine-maker Serum Institute of India (SII) has been duped of over Rs 1 crore. Some scamsters cheated the company by sending fraudulent messages in the name of its Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawala. A First Information Report (FIR) for cheating and offences under the Information Technology Act has been registered. According to news agencies, Satish Deshpande, SII director, had received a WhatsApp message from a person who posed as Adar Poonawala and asked Deshpande to transfer the money to certain bank accounts on priority. Deshpande, who was under impression that the message was from the CEO, asked officials to transfer the money online. However, they realised later that no such message was sent by Poonawalla. 

The incident clearly shows that anyone can fall prey to online scamsters as they come up with new and unique ways of cheating people and even companies. 
According to police officials, they are yet to identify the accused who sent the WhatsApp messages and the person who holds the bank account in which the money was transferred.

It is therefore very important to be extra careful while reacting to any suspicious WhatsApp messages. Here are certain steps that you can follow to easily identify unwanted messages on the instant messaging app.

What unwanted messages look like

Carefully reading messages can indicate whether the message is genuine or sent by some scamsters. Look out for these things in the messages as they indicate that the person sending the message is untrustworthy:

- Misspellings or grammatical mistakes

- Asking you to tap on a link 

- Asking you to activate a new feature by clicking on a link

- Asking you to share your personal information

- Asking you to forward a message

- Encouraging you to share details of your credit card or bank account

- Claiming that you have to pay to use WhatsApp

What to do when you can get such unwanted messages?

If you find any message to be suspicious, don't share, forward or tap on any link sent in the message. WhatsApp suggests users block such senders immediately. Also, you can delete the message.