Gamers In Delhi Easy Prey For Cybercon

Crooks make fake profiles to lure young addicts into buying gaming points, steal money with debit card & e-wallet details

- Shashank Shekhar

Last week, a Gurugram businessman lost a huge sum of money to his son’s addiction to online gaming. The Class X student had given UPI details of his account to an anonymous cyber crook who promised gaming currencies in return.

In July, a Punjab youth took his craze for mobile games to a different level by spending `16 lakh from his father’s account to buy virtual ammunition.

Prior to that fraud, a motorbike mechanic lost `50,000 after his 15-year-old son withdrew the money from his bank account to purchase a PUBG game controller as well as weapons.

If you are glued to online mobile gaming during coronavirus curbs, beware! Cybercriminals are now looking for targets on popular platforms and duping addicts with promises of gaming points, coins or virtual currency that players need to customise their gaming avatars.

The popularity for online gaming has surged during the pandemic and gained mainstream recognition. And hackers are making a killing by trapping and duping youngsters.

GAME ON!

Cybercrime investigators say Garena Free Fire and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Fortnite are online multiplayer survival games and let players talk, chat and engage with random participants.

These games are usually free but have features to build the player’s virtual character through points used to “buy” clothes, cars, and weapons.

In-game currencies can be used to get exclusive customisation, and complete missions and challenges or levels. All this could also be done by spending real money.