Curbing greed is only way to beat online scammers

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A front-page report in this newspaper rang the alarm bells, with cyber police admitting that the fake online stock market investment apps scam is well on its way to being the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on our shores. This, when we have already seen multi-thousand-crore scams like the like-and-earn scandal, and other assorted cons making millions victims.

The police told this newspaper that while the cyber cell is inundated with several hundred complaints, many more are still flooding the city's 90-odd local police stations. Worse, they are unsure of the number of people yet to muster the courage to come forward and lodge complaints out of shame.

What separates this current scam from others is that while the earlier ones were genuine cases where fraudsters hoodwinked unsuspecting and tech-illiterate people to click on nefarious links and swindle their money, the ongoing stock market scams seems to be one where victims have jumped in with both feet, eyes closed.

Simply put, this is how it works. The scammers set up social media groups, to which prospective victims are added. There, they see strangers boast about extraordinary earnings from ‘stock market apps', which piques interest. Once the victim ‘invests' money in these fake apps, they do see some good early returns. Once enticed, they invest their entire life savings, and that is when the conmen disappear with the money. At the heart of this scam is the victim's greed. And curbing greed is the only way to stay safe in these shark-infested waters. If promised returns sound too good, stay away.

Most importantly, we need to shield the elderly from falling prey. We need to take the time and effort to educate the senior citizens in our families to be wary of these schemes.