How ‘Diwali gift’ scam message on WhatsApp cost Bengaluru techie Rs 4.5 Lakh

A Bengaluru-based techie fell victim to an online gift card scam recently, losing Rs 4.5 lakh. As per a Money Control report, the fraud started when the engineer received a Diwali gift message on WhatsApp, allegedly from his boss. “I am currently engaged in a conference call meeting and I need you to run a quick assignment. We need to provide our clients in India with some gift cards, can you confirm if we can get apple app store cards from Paytm…,” read the WhatsApp message received on October 13.