Beware: New Jio DTH SMS scam on the rise

Reliance’s Jio 4G network is one of the most talked-about entity recently in the world of technology. And that’s primarily due to one major reason —affordable pricing for their services. Jio has been slowly venturing into fields other than a network service provider. Recently, rumours about Jio venturing into DTH set-top boxes and wired network have been doing the rounds of the Internet. Scamsters have been taking advantage of these rumoured services and they have been exploiting Jio’s hype to perform cyber crimes. After unearthing an SMS scam promising the rumoured Jio DTH boxes for Rs 11, there’s another scam related to the Jio DTH TV and JioPhone going around.

We recently received an SMS that carried the following message: “JIO PHONE & DTH Rs. 10 only for lifetime free channels register now offer for 1st 1000 customers avail this offer http://jiodevices.online/ Book now”. Now, the initial impulse to such a lucrative offer is to register for the product immediately before it runs out of stock.

Clicking on the link will lead you to a website that you may pass as the actual Jio website at first glance, with big banners of the JioFi and a crude-looking Jio DTH set-top box decorating the page. Once you click the book button, it will lead you to a payment gateway portal that offers payment through a debit or credit card. The subsequent page in both the subsections will ask for your card number, CVV number, expiration date, cardholder name and DOB. The banner on top of the page displays Rs 10 as the amount to be transacted.

However, once you click on the ‘Make payment’ button, you will be greeted with the following message: “Oops!!!! Transaction declined by your Bank.” Even if you go through the whole process once again, the webpage will keep showing the same message repeatedly.

If you fell for the hoax and gave in all of your actual bank account details, then the information now rests with someone possessing malicious intentions. The website doesn’t belong to Reliance Jio and isn’t even ‘https’ verified. The URL ‘jiodevices.online’ doesn’t exist and has been designed to fool users into believing its authenticity.

Therefore, it’s advisable to watch out for such dubious messages with URLs. One has to always keep in mind that rumoured products and services from a particular organisation never rollout before the company’s official announcement. The rumoured Jio DTH isn’t a reality yet and the company will announce on its official website once the product is launched. If you are keen on buying the Jio DTH box, keep following the media for all the latest news and information related to the same.

We also request our readers to look out for certain elements that may give out signs about a malicious website:

1. Look for the product or service from the official website. If it’s listed there, it’s advisable to follow the links from their own website.
2. A malicious website will feature several incorrect elements despite replicating the official site. Therefore, one can expect susceptible-looking products, incorrect logos, grammatical spellings and many others.
3. If you happen to have a computer nearby, check for the link on Google Chrome. If the link doesn’t show ‘https’ as a part of its URL, it is advisable to stay away from that website.
4. Whenever an SMS with links leading to a booking page is received, one can follow a simple precautionary step — fill in random details in the boxes and if the page keeps on accepting all the information without notifying you of incorrect information, then stay safe of such websites.

(source)