Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started, there has been an uptick in the number of cybercrimes and frauds. People are resorting to new ways and methods to trick people, which ends badly for them. An old fraud trick dating back to 2019 has come alive again and has been successful in making people believe it's the real deal.
Several ads with a similar description have been shared on reseller platforms, including Facebook Marketplace and Olx. The seller poses as a CISF personnel, who has been transferred and is willing to sell off his entire household items, including sofa set, bed, refrigerator, AC, washing machine, TV, dining table, wardrobe and more. Many ads with similar photos and descriptions have been shared online, but each with a different name to give a sense that the ad is unique.
International Business Times reviewed several ads shared on Facebook Marketplace, claiming to resell many household items at attractive prices. But there's a catch. Interested buyers are asked to pay a token advance, which compared to the total price is less than 10 percent. While the amount may seem small, getting the same amount from multiple unsuspecting buyers can be a huge sum.
We were able to identify four such fake ads on Facebook Marketplace under different names such as Bablu Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Srikanth, among others. We called some of the numbers to see how they scam people and this is what we learned. Each ad has different phone number, but it's unclear if the operation is run by the same person or a group of fraudsters.
One number was switched off.
Another number from a different ad belonged to a different person, who said it was a wrong number.
Third number went unanswered.
Unearthing a "moving out sale" fraud
This is usually the case when the fraudsters have managed to defraud people. We went through the comments of these ads and found out that there were many interests and some comments were smart enough to call out the fraud.
But after a few tries to the third number listed on one of the ads, the person answered. Before any introduction, the person first asked where I was calling from. Despite asking him where the items were, he was persistent on finding out about our location and when we revealed it the state, he further probed the city. This was the first indicator of the scam. After learning about the location, he was quick to confirm that the items were available in the same city.
After making some attempts at negotiating, he said to make an advance payment of Rs 2,000 for items worth Rs 45,000. Once the items are delivered to the home address, the remaining payment can be made, said the CISF imposter who identified himself as Bablu Kumar and even promised to share his credentials on WhatsApp.
As per his request, we sent a WhatsApp message asking for photos of the items to assess condition of the items. After sharing the photos, we made ridiculous offers for all the items, less than half of his asking price, just to see how far long the fraudster was willing to go to expose himself. We refused to make any advance payments. The imposter kept insisting, but the thumb rule of any online dealing
Along with the photos of the items, he also shared CISF credentials of one Bablu Kumar, but clearly they were fake. The photos of the household items seemed too good to be true. The fraudster also told us that the items would be shipped to our home directly from Bengaluru International Airport.
Not the first time, doesn't look like the last
Upon researching on the name of the CSIF imposter using some keywords in the ad, we were able to trace back to an ad dating back to November 2019. It was more of an OLX listing warning people about how the imposter Bablu Kumar was duping people. This time, the same moving out sale fraud took place in Indore and the victim paid Rs 17,000 for items worth Rs 34,000. Taking notice of that 2019 OLX listing, nearly two dozen people came forward with the same complaint of having been defrauded of thousands of rupees on a false pretext of selling them used household items, smartphones, etc. But none of those numbers are operational and it became clear that the fraudster is using different mobile numbers after every successful scam.
Also, we were able to find that this scam has been running for years and the same name crops up every time. People shopping online, especially from unverified sources, must practice extra caution and never make advance payments. Always demand to see the product in person before any financial transaction. Advance payment is the most common technique adopted by fraud sellers to trick buyers and pursue them to make upfront payments for goods, services, etc.
Olx warns its customers of such frauds and even has some hat tips to identify such frauds. Fraud deals are often too good to be true, demand token without meeting in person, pose as people from trustworthy & noble professions like Army Personnel, CISF, BSF, Doctors, NGOs, Public services, etc, act with a sense of urgency to sell the item, seek advance fee to cover any processing fee, duty charges, etc.
