BEWARE! Many old WhatsApp scams floating around under new names and offers.
Do you get annoyed on receiving a tele-marketing call, selling you insurance, investment, home etc ? You might have fallen for this scam on WhatsApp in past.
Many tempting offers are floating around on WhatsApp asking you to register so you can get/win give something for free. These scams have been going on for years.
Debunked many in past, came across two going on currently.
First one claims in celebration of Narendra Modi becoming PM again, Free laptop for 2 crore youth has been announced, 30 Lakh youths have already applied for it.
“नरेंद्र मोदी के दोबारा प्रधानमंत्री बनने की खुशी में मेक इन इंडिया के तहत 2 करोड़ों युवाओं को मुफ्त लैपटॉप देने का ऐलान किया है, अभी तक 30 लाख युवा सफलतापूर्वक आवेदन कर चुके हैं अब आपकी बारी है अंतिम तिथि से पहले अपना आवेदन जल्द से जल्द सबमिट करें-
👇👇
http://modi-laptop.inspiron.site”
Second one claims government is giving out Rs. 7000 to all students who passed 10th or 12th (SSC or HSC) exams
“SSC-HSC योजना – Get Free RS.7000 cheque
अगर आप 10-12 पास है तो जल्दी लाभ लीजिये ।
सभी विद्यार्थी को Goverment मुक्त में दे रहे है 7000 रुपये
क्या आपने 45�”
Analysis
These are WhatsApp scams i.e. the only medium these spread on and use is WhatsApp medium, not on FB, Twitter etc.
These scams earns from two methods
1. Since offers doesn’t ask people to pay up, being free, they think of giving it a try soll fill the form, submit ans share in other WhatsApp groups as this scam asks. Further in other groups, others also give it a try which results in lakhs of registration on the site.
So the owner of website gets a database of lakhs of mobile numbers which he\she sells for tele-marketing and you start receiving such calls.
2. Advertisement on their page which gets lakhs of visits in short period through which also owner of the page/site earns a lot.
What can you do ?
Following are the points to recognize these scams
1. The URL/website is never official or simple. Government websites end by “.gov”. Many offers come in the name of a online mall like Amazon, Flipkart or brands like Nike, Xiaomi etc, but none have link to their official websites but to long complicated URL with many characters.
2. After filling out your information and submitting, these sites ask you to share in 8-10 other WhatsApp groups
3. These have advertisements banners on their page
4. Either they do not have links to other pages of site or doesn’t work for e.g. About Us, Privacy etc.
5. Looking closely results in many spelling errors or grammatical errors.
6. They look alike i.e. vertical in both mode i.e. mobile and desktop
Previous such Scams debunked –
Another WhatsApp Scam. PM is not giving away laptops for free
Yet another WhatsApp scam, this time in the name of free t-shirt from Reliance Jio
It’s a TeleMarketing Scam. You can’t extend JIO offer with this.
A WhatsApp Scam back again, misusing photo of our PM as usual.
- Congressmen are using an edited image explaining why Rahul Gandhi will become PM. - January 19, 2023
- A North Eastern cultural dress worn by PM Modi is being claimed as a Ladies’ dress which is digitally edited. - December 22, 2022
- An aerial photo of a Thailand Highway is being used by BJP leaders claimed as Mumbai Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway - December 9, 2022
