Phishing rackets a challenge for Punjab Police

AMRITSAR: Regular instances of online frauds by phishing rackets have become a major challenge for the local police. Despite the fact that bank authorities and the Reserve Bank of India pass instructions to the consumers from time to time not to share details of their bank accounts and ATM or debit cards with anonymous callers, people continue to fall into the trap of online fraudsters.

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 20

Regular instances of online frauds by phishing rackets have become a major challenge for the local police.

Despite the fact that bank authorities and the Reserve Bank of India pass instructions to the consumers from time to time not to share details of their bank accounts and ATM or debit cards with anonymous callers, people continue to fall into the trap of online fraudsters.

If the past cases are looked into, the police have failed to arrest the culprits who were found to be operating from other states, including Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka or Maharashtra.

On last Wednesday, two fresh cases of online frauds came to the light in which two local, Adesh Kumar and Jaswant Singh, were involved. Interestingly, Kumar lost an amount to the tune of Rs 94,000 through his ATM card which he had lost in August last year. In his complaint lodged with police, he said the accused withdrew Rs 67,960 and Rs 26,000 from his account in a fraudulent manner.

Similarly, Jaswant Singh of the Verka area stated to the police that an unknown person withdrew Rs 2.84 lakh through net banking from his account.

A similar incident was reported in March this year when unknown persons took out Rs 40,000 from his account. They called on his mobile posing as bank employees and took details of his ATM card.

Last year also witnessed such instances in which residents lost their hard-earned money to phishing rackets. Ajit Singh of Hargobind Nagar lost Rs 51,000 in a similar fashion.

Police officials said many a time, it was the fault of the residents who shared vital information of their cards with fraudsters despite repeated instructions from the banks who advised them not to share this information, as banks did not require such details. Awareness among public is very necessary and people should be alert about it.

“The bank authorities ask their customers not to give any details of their account numbers to anyone on phone even if the callers claim themselves to be bank officials. The people should be aware about this and not fall into the trap of swindlers,” said the official.

Charanjit Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, said the investigations in such cases are time consuming. Usually, the mobiles numbers they use are issued on fake names and addresses. He said the police would seek the help of the cyber cell to trace the criminals.