Search for ‘airline customer care’ or ‘bank helpline’ and the top results can be planted numbers. Complain about a brand on X and a stranger ‘from support’ replies within minutes.
How the numbers get there
Fake business listings on maps, paid ads on search results, SEO pages with the brand's name, and social accounts watching for complaints. The number leads to a call centre that runs the refund-token or remote-access script.
The script
A small ‘token / processing’ payment to start the refund; a request to install AnyDesk / TeamViewer ‘to help’; a request for the OTP ‘to confirm the refund’. Each is a theft.
Where real numbers live
On the back of the card, the passbook, the printed bill, the official app's ‘contact us’ page, and the brand's verified handle (blue tick) — not in a reply from an unverified account.
Checklist
- ☐Official numbers saved from the card / app, not from search
- ☐No screen-sharing app installed for ‘support’
- ☐No payment made to receive a refund
- ☐No OTP shared with ‘support’
- ☐Fake listings / numbers reported on the platform and Chakshu
Where to report
- • 1930 — national cyber-crime helpline (money lost: call within the first hour)
- • cybercrime.gov.in — National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
- • chakshu.sancharsaathi.gov.in — report fraud numbers and SMS
- • sachet.rbi.org.in — RBI complaints about unregistered lenders / deposit schemes