India: Police officer places order on e-com firm, his details get leaked to scammers

How often have we heard of cases in India, where bank customers receive an SMS saying their accounts would get frozen or their reward points are expiring? These text messages are worded to appear legitimate and also provide links for redeeming the reward points or updating the customer details to prevent the account from being frozen. Those who end up clicking the links get scammed of huge amounts of money and only realize their mistake after it's too late.

In the latest incident, a serving Indian police officer was at the receiving end of something similar, after shopping on a popular e-commerce platform. With the aim of alerting fellow users, P Aravindhan, Zonal Director of Narcotics Control Bureau, Chennai Zone, shared his experience on social media.

According to the officer's social media post, he had recently placed an order on the Indian E-commerce website 'Nykaa' and the products had even been delivered. However, a short while after his order had been delivered on Monday 10th April, he received a call from someone claiming to be from Nykaa Customer care.

Scam alert/serious data breach issue
I ordered few products from nykaa and within half an hour after delivery i got a scam call claiming to be from nykaa call center. This is the second time i am getting similar call and decided to play along pic.twitter.com/HlpWwl6vHR — Aravindhan P IPS (@aravindhanIPS) April 10, 2023

"Claiming to be a customer care executive from Nykaa, the caller told me that I could win an iPhone 12 or a Sony Bravia TV, if I place an order worth more than Rs.5000. The caller asked me to select all the products and add them to cart. Instead of making the payment directly on the E-com platform, the caller asked me to make the payment to their account" the officer told WION. They even had my exact name, mobile number, delivery address and said that the products and the gift would be delivered there.

Sensing that this was a malicious call, the officer didn't proceed further and make any payment. He highlighted the issue on social media and mentioned that he is facing this issue for the second time, suspecting that the data leak could have happened from Nykaa or the delivery partner 'Delhivery'. He also raised questions on how the scammers got access to his personal data that was shared with Nykaa and how the scammers managed to call him immediately after the order delivery is fulfilled.

He told WION that he had raised the issue further with Nykaa and provided them with the relevant details for probing the matter.

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