Bengaluru techie gets 'boss's' text on WhatsApp, loses Rs 4.5 lakh in Diwali gift scam. Here's what happened

A Bengaluru-based techie lost a staggering Rs 4.5 lakh after he received a WhatsApp message on his mobile, supposedly from his boss, instructing him to assist with a Diwali gift gesture.

In a distressing incident of cyber fraud, a Bengaluru-based techie lost a staggering Rs 4.5 lakh after he received a WhatsApp message on his mobile, supposedly from his boss, instructing him to assist with a Diwali gift gesture.

The victim received a message on October 13 that read, "I am currently engaged in a conference call meeting and I need you to run a quick assignment. We need to provide our clients in India with some gift cards, can you confirm if we can get apple app store cards from Paytm." 

A fresh recruit and eager to impress, the engineer readily complied, purchasing Apple App Store vouchers worth Rs 4.35 lakh. Following the sender's instructions, he promptly sent over the voucher codes. However, things took a turn when a conversation with HR revealed the message had not come from his actual boss but from a scammer.

Realizing that he had been duped, the engineer filed an FIR with the Bellandur Cyber Crime Branch the next day.

Based on the complaint, police have launched an investigation, warning others to be cautious of similar scams.

Meanwhile, the victim said, “Apple's customer support operates only Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm, which significantly limits victims’ ability to seek timely assistance. I couldn’t get the IDs blocked or get any respite immediately in recovering the misused funds and had to wait till morning for Apple support to open.”