Cybercriminals adopting innovative ways to cheat

Chandigarh, March 2

A woman of Sector 18 in Chandigarh was looted of Rs 10 lakh by a cyber fraudster, who impersonated a bank representative appointed for updating her Know Your Customer (KYC) details in January.

Similarly, a fraudster posed as an Airtel executive and called up a customer on the pretext of updating his KYC form. He allegedly tricked him into revealing his bank details and transferred a large sum of money from his bank account.

These are not isolated examples, cyber crooks are adopting innovative ways to cheat people. Unfortunately, such instances of cyber fraud are becoming alarmingly frequent. According to insiders, they are pushing bulk SMS and calls, and ask probable victims to update their KYC details of bank, LIC or mobile phone.

The fraudsters call customers claiming to be from a bank or financial institution and asks for account details or an OTP to unblock or renew the existing bank account. The details are then used to withdraw money from the customer’s bank account.

For updating KYC, at times they ask the customer to download various remote access applications. Once the customer downloads these applications, they are asked to transfer a nominal amount such as Rs 1 or 10. “Following this, the fraudsters hack the bank account and transfer money to their own account,” said sources.

To aware the customers, amid growing frauds, Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal had also written to customers and asked them to be careful. Warning customers, he said there were several fake UPI apps and ecommerce websites which appear authentic by using words and logos such as NPCI and BHIM. “If you download any of these, you will be asked to enter all your bank details and MPIN, thereby granting the fraudster complete access to your account details,” said the Airtel.

Don’t share info with anyone

• Be vigilant, never share any financial or personal information such as customer ID, MPIN, OTP etc. with anyone over the phone, SMS or email
• Do not follow instructions in any SMS sent from an untrusted source
• Never open suspicious websites or apps and beware of unbelievable offers