AnyDesk fraud: Surat woman loses Rs. 50,000 by contacting ‘animal helpline’ through google search

Surat: A cheater withdrew Rs. 44,998 amount from an account of a woman in Parle Point area of city using AnyDesk app.

A 28-year old woman Krutikaben Chaudhary, resident of Rudraraj apartment saw a dead dog outside her apartment. She googled for contact number of any animal helpline that can offer service of dumping of dead animals. Through Google search, she found a number of ‘animal helpline’. When contacted, a person claiming to be Dipak Sharma on the other end told her that ambulance would be sent soon to take away a dead animal, for which she needs to deposit Rs. 10 token fee online. Chaudhary was sent a link of AnyDesk app. As soon as she processed the link and related instructions, Rs. 49,998 sum was withdrawn from her account in five different transactions through PayTM.

Victim Krutikaben Chaudhary has filed complaint in Umra police station.

It’s worth noting that the Reserve Bank of India had last year issued a warning against download of an app called “AnyDesk” through social media or any other channel as bank account may become empty within minutes.”AnyDesk” is a software that can do transactions from your bank account through your mobile or laptop.

In the notice, the central bank had informed the commercial lenders that a mobile app named “AnyDesk” was being allegedly used to target the mobile phones of customers. The alert was issued by the RBI’s cybersecurity and IT examination cell. It said that once the app is downloaded on a mobile phone, it seeks permission to access control of the phone like other applications. However, when the permission is granted by a user, AnyDesk app allegedly steals confidential data on the phone to carry out fraudulent transactions through other payments app available on the phone.