Bengaluru airport lounge access turns costly: Woman duped of Rs 87,000 | WATCH

By Gargi Chaudhry | First Published Oct 23, 2024, 9:55 AM IST

A woman lost over Rs 87,000 in a potential scam at Bengaluru Airport after attempting to access the lounge using a picture of her credit card. She was asked to download an app and undergo facial recognition, which she believes allowed scammers to access her phone and make unauthorized transactions.

A woman lost over Rs 87,000 in a possible scam at Bengaluru Airport when she tried to access the lounge before her flight. She presented a picture of her credit card to get in because she didn't have it on her person. For security reasons, the lounge employees then requested that she download an app and submit to a facial recognition test. She did what she was told, but it wasn't until she got her credit card bill that she realized the deception.

The woman never made use of the lounge amenities, even though she downloaded the "Lounge Pass" app on September 29. Instead, she went to Starbucks to have a coffee before her departure. People informed her that they couldn't get through to her on the phone a few days following her vacation. She initially attributed this to the network problems she had been having with Airtel for months.

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“With Airtel’s horrible connection for the last couple of months, I assumed that it was because of poor signals. Then somebody told me why is a male picking up your phone,” the woman in the now-viral video said.

This scam occurred inside the Bengaluru International Airport, to a person using an IPhone, which I regard as scam proof. Safeguard ur hard-earned money, folks! pic.twitter.com/dOlEg5kGGt

— Dr Jaison Philip. M.S., MCh (@Jasonphilip8)

Although this did seem familiar, she dismissed it at the moment since she was focused on a hospital family matter. Not until she discovered that her credit card had been charged more than Rs 87,000 and that the money had been moved to a PhonePay account. Now, she believes the scammers used the software to access her phone, allowing call forwarding and maybe intercepting OTPs to carry out unauthorized transactions.

"They requested that I download this lounge pass software, which allows screen sharing. They gained access to my phone's settings and performed a call-forwarding operation, which prevented me from receiving any calls. I'm not sure how many of my OTPs they have access to or how much of it is possible," she added.

She has since filed a complaint with cybercrime department, informed her bank, HDFC, and blocked her card.

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