Rising Trend of Fraudulent Calls in Salt Lake and Ballygunge Raises Concern

SALT LAKE - A new trend of fraudulent calls has been causing concern among residents of Salt Lake and Ballygunge. In recent incidents, a Salt Lake resident received a call from a man claiming to be from his office’s “technical support team” and sought remote access to his computer. Similarly, a Ballygunge resident received six calls within an hour and a half from unknown numbers, all claiming to have received a missed call from his number.

In both cases, the recipients suspected foul play and disconnected the calls before any information could be obtained. However, many people are unaware of how to handle such calls and end up losing money.

Senior police officers have noted that people being cheated through remote access to their phone or computer systems is not uncommon. However, the recent trend of engaging someone who claims to be responding to a “missed call” or from the tech support team of the recipient’s office could mark a new trend.

Cybersecurity experts suspect that these calls are being generated using software. “These are fake calls that are generated through a software that uses the VoIP interface to place a call,” said Sandeep Sengupta, director of the Indian School of Anti-Hacking (ISOEH). “The person doing this has to put a phone number in the software and initiate a call to the target’s mobile phone. The actual owner of that number will have no clue about it.”

The police are advising recipients of such calls to report the cases to the local police station or the cybercrime cell. They also suggest that if an unknown person calls claiming to have received a call from your number, stay calm and end the conversation at the earliest. Do not divulge personal details such as your name, location, and profession.

In the case of the Salt Lake resident, the caller was caught lying when he asked for the official email ID of the person. The police have provided several guidelines on how to react if one receives such a call, including not downloading any software or clicking any links provided by an unknown caller, and never answering a video call from an unknown number. Repeated harassment by unknown callers should be reported to the police.