symbolic picture
Nowadays the incidents of online fraud are increasing at an alarming pace. Earlier this week, Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal sent an email warning its customers (Airtel has around 350 million users) on the rising cases of online frauds which are common due to the increase in online transactions post the COVID-19 pandemic. It is done.
In an official email, Vittal urged customers to be alert about calls made by cyber-fraudsters posing as an Airtel executive to update their KYC form and cheat them. Satyajit Sinha, Senior Analyst, IoT Analytics, said that such incidents of KYC fraud have been increasing at an alarming rate since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Scam cases increase due to increase in mobile time
According to a news website, Satyajit Sinha emphasized that such scams have increased since people have started spending more time with their mobile phones. The pandemic has pushed us all into the virtual world more than the reality and scammers are using it to their advantage and tricking users into stealing their personal data and money.
In the email statement, Gopal Vittal further explained that “the customer can receive a call or message from the fraudster claiming to be from the bank/financial institution and ask for the account details or an OTP to unblock/update the existing bank account.” Huh.” He further added, “These details are used to withdraw money from the customer’s bank account. So I urge you to pay attention and proceed with caution and do not share any financial or personal information like Customer ID, MPIN, OTP etc over phone.
Apart from this, Gopal Vittal also cautioned users about fake UPI apps and e-commerce websites that appear authentic in design through the use of NPCI, BHIM and logos. He said, “If a customer downloads one of these, he will be asked to enter all his bank details as well as his MPIN, which will give full access to your bank details to the fraudster. Please refrain from such suspicious websites and apps and refrain from sharing any secret information via email or by clicking on any suspicious links in the email, even if the request appears to be from authorities such as Income Tax Department, Visa or Mastercard. Be.”
How to identify such scams
There are several ways to identify such scams. Firstly, users will need to be more alert and aware of the things around them. One of the basic things is, users should never share an OTP or personal details with any unknown or even knowledgeable person. Satyajit Sinha explained that using OTP, such scammers can often mirror the user’s phone and gain access to all his activities, data as well as money.
He further added that with the concept of eSIM, mirroring the phone has become easier than ever. Hence, to avoid falling prey to such cases, users should be aware and be able to identify such fake scams.
Try these tips to stay safe
- Users should never install third party applications on your mobile device. Android users are advised to block third party applications by going to the Settings menu.
- These scams mostly follow a pattern message. So, whenever you receive a message asking for OTP details or your personal information, double-check the receiver number/source. You should also cross-verify text messages as scam messages often follow a different pattern as compared to the original bank messages.
- Scammed messages often contain spelling mistakes or grammatical mistakes. Double-check suspicious messages.
- Users should always cross verify the information with the official website or application. For example, if you get a suspicious message from an Airtel executive asking for KYC related details, go to the official website or app, login with your number and check if any such information is available with you. If not, the message you received is a scam.
- One of the most common security measures is to never share OTPs with anyone. OTP is called a secret code and should not be shared with anyone.
read this also-
Facebook will launch its first smartwatch in the name of Meta, will compete with Apple Watch
Changing the name of ‘Facebook’ will change anything for the users? Know what Mark Zuckerberg said
.