Hyderabad: A 60-year-old woman from Secunderabad lost Rs 1,07,621 when she dialed an online fake Amazon Customer Care number while attempting a refund. Hyderabad Cyber Crimes police have lodged a case and are probing.
The victim, who was expecting a refund on a product, looked up Amazon’s customer care number on Google. She mistakenly called a fake number from the search results.
A guy who identified himself as “Deepak Shukla” picked up the call and presented himself as an Amazon support executive.
The fraudster instructed her, in the complaint made to the Cyber Crime Police Station, that he required remote access to her phone to facilitate the refund.
She believed him and allowed him to have a screen-sharing session, in the course of which the caller remotely accessed her Amazon and Google Pay accounts.
Subsequently, he informed her that the refund would not be possible and asked her to provide her bank account details too.
Before she came to know that something was amiss, Rs 1,07,621 had been embezzled from all her accounts. She then reported the incident to the Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police.
Telangana witnesses fall in high-value cybercrime
Though Telangana recorded an 11 percent decrease in total cybercrime complaints during the first four months of 2025, cases related to high-value frauds such as these remain a serious concern. Financial losses due to cybercrimes decreased by 19 percent from the corresponding period in 2024, claims the Telangana police.
More FIRs were, however, filed and arrests made in huge numbers, reflecting better enforcement but also a lingering threat.
