SMS Fraud: How a simple SMS tried to scam a Bengaluru entrepreneur out of thousands

A Bengaluru-based entrepreneur, Aditi, recently dodged a sophisticated financial scam. She nearly fell victim to the sophisticated financial scam that simply uses cleverly crafted SMS to create confusion and ultimately steal money. Aditi shared her story on X (formerly Twitter) to create awareness about the scam. 

A call from "Papa"

The drama unfolded when Aditi was in an office discussion and she gets a call. The voice on the other end sounded like a man much older than her. The man addresses her affectionately as "beta" (daughter).

He then spins a tale of a familial mix-up: “Aditi beta, papa ko paise bhejne the par unko ja nahi rahe toh unhone bola aapko bhejdu. Beta check karo aapka number yahi hai na?” (Aditi, I was supposed to send money to dad, but since he couldn’t receive it, he asked me to send it to you. Is this your number, dear?). Before she can fully digest the situation, her phone buzzes with what looks like bank alerts for significant amounts of money credited to her account.

Creating urgency

The plot thickens as the caller, now seemingly distressed, claims he meant to send only Rs 3,000 but accidentally transferred Rs 30,000 instead. He’s at the doctor’s, he says, and needs the excess money returned ASAP. He also shows extreme urgency in his tone.

How Aditi avoided the scam

She notes the discrepancy: the SMS alerts came from a regular 10-digit mobile number, not the official sender ID you’d expect from a bank. Plus, if her real father had been involved, he'd have called directly.

Realizing that she was about to get scammed, she attempted to call back, only to find she had been blocked.

What to do in such situations?

In the tweet narrating her ordeal, Aditi emphasised the importance of double-checking financial alerts directly through one's bank app or website, ideally on a separate device. Trusting SMSes alone is a risky bet as scammers have become adept at mimicking official communications to a T.