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Bank Customers Beware: Scammers Turn ‘Bank Officials’ Using Google Maps Loophole, Finds Maharashtra Police
Representative image of Google Maps on a mobile phone. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Maharashtra Cyber police have uncovered a new scam being used by con men to dupe unsuspecting people trying to use banking services.
A loophole on Google Maps is exploited by the scammers to impersonate bank officials and demand private financial information from customers, reports Indiatimes.com.
Google Maps allows users to mark their offices or businesses on its navigation system, along with their contact information. But Google has no official verification process to ensure that the inputs are genuine. Scammers in Thane have used this loophole to mark themselves as bank branches, and editing the entry to include their own phone numbers.
A number of people have already lost their money after falling prey to this scam, allowing con men to extract their card numbers, PIN details and other banking details.
Superintendent of Police, Balsing Rajput of the Maharashtra Cyber Police said, “We have received at least three complaints from the Bank of India (BoI) over the last one month.” He said that in all these instances, the police notified Google to remove the fraudulent information.
Experts recommend certain precautionary measures to avoid becoming a victim to such scamming tactics. Firstly, one should never search for their bank’s contact information on unofficial sources. Helpline numbers are readily available on the official websites of banks. Also, banks never ask for PIN or CVV details over the phone, and generally only demand the officially registered number or a previously created security question to identify the customer.
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