With advancement in technology, fraudsters have also become too smart to be caught by gullible users. Most fraudsters, incidentally, follow a common theme to fleece users.
It usually works like this: An agent pretending to a ‘bank representative’ lures a customer with some gift or a reward in cash or kind. This is their bargain to encourage the user to share key details which ideally he should not.
The confidential information is then misused to dupe customer of his hard-earned money. In a recent case registered in the cyber police station in Bandra Kurla Complex, a gang of fraudsters targeted high net-worth individuals (HNIs) and fleeced them.
The fraudsters duped 16 victims for a total of ₹1.2 crore and one person lost a total of ₹9.81 lakh, a media report suggested.
The modus-operandi
The fraudsters used to procure leads of rich customers from premium car dealers. Then they approached these customers for selling exclusive credit cards by posing as Citi Bank Diner Club’s relationship managers.
Then they would give a form to these customers to fill out so that they can procure information relating to their PAN, phone number and address.
They used to then send mobile phones to these customers and tell them to insert sim cards into them. With the help of DOT Secure and SecurEnvoy Authenticator, they used to steal confidential information of these users such as bank and credit card details.
Some of the ways to save yourself from frauds:
1. Ask for identity documents: When someone approaches you uninvited for selling a financial instrument, it is recommended to ask for his identity card. Believing whatever being told is not a very wise thing to do.
2. Check if it sets an alarm bells ringing: Like in the above mentioned case, if a “bank representative” asks you to insert your sim card into a cell phone brought by him, one has all the reasons to be extra suspicious.
Never ever fall into such temptations. It’s okay to lose an “incentive” instead of risking your hard-earned money to a fraud.
3. Never share confidential information: Sharing your PAN number, mobile number, photo and address might appear innocuous, but should still be avoided at all costs. Unless you are sure that the person with whom you are sharing these details is reliable – you should not share them.
4. Keeping online limits lower: In case of a fraud or a theft, when a fraudster tries to misuse your card details to make purchases, you can save yourself by keeping the limits to a minimum.
Let’s say that you don’t usually make purchases above ₹30,000 using your credit card, then you should keep the maximum limit of your card at ₹30,000 for online as well as merchant transactions.
5. Never refrain from blocking the card: At the slightest hint of a wrong or suspicious transaction, you should promptly block your credit card.
It might lead to some inconvenience for auto debit transactions will get cancelled and so on and so forth. But it is still worth doing it to prevent the avoidable frauds.
