kolkata from fake promises for jobs to duping good samaritans trying to donate to emergency relief funds from homedelivery frauds to conning people trying to head home with emergency passes conmen are leaving no stones unturned to hoodwink people in this time of crisisa 44yearold professional payel adhikari recently updated her cv on a portal after she lost her job in the middle of the lockdown within an hour she received a call from a person claiming to represent a private bank who asked her to fill up an online form i was asked to make a transaction of rs 200 while filling up the form the next day the man called back and said i was selected he said i needed to pay rs 3500 so the company could process my appointment letter i realised it was a fraud and backed away she saidtimesviewmuch of crime has shifted online with the lockdown and so everyone needs to be careful there is no foolproof solution but a few basic precautions can prevent griefin another incident a group of students and professionals trying to leave kolkata for assam transferred rs 80000 to a travel agent to arrange for a bus but were duped two new forms of fraud that have surfaced some people trying to donate to pm cares fund were given fake upi ids through which the scamsters stole money some conmen dupe people by posing as representatives of restaurants and providing fake links to pay for home delivery said an officera bhowanipore woman had ordered groceries for her parents in hazra when she discovered some of the items were missing from the delivery she called up the customer care number she found online and was promised a callback the caller asked for her wallet details to return the money within minutes of her providing the details she lost close to rs 10000 mallika datta associate professor gynecology obstetrics at calcutta national medical college had ordered 1000 n95 masks for her department from a mumbaibased company and paid rs 52000 in advance she neither received the masks nor her money a stockist of medical equipment lodged an fir after being duped of rs 1 lakh in a similar fashion from what was allegedly a mumbaibased firmjoint cp crime murlidhar sharma however said there was actually a decrease in online fraud complaints the modus operandi is new but the number of cases has dropped that is because people have more time now to check what they are doing online he said at present the detective department is close to tracking down a gang using kolkata mobile numbers to con people we have received multiple complaints i believe a jamtara gang is using kolkata numbers to mislead the probe said an officer