The menace of money swindlers who operate online, mostly targeting bank customers, is rife amid alerts and actions by authorities. The felons are more prepared and organised every time they re-surface. Recent cases reveal they are well equipped with inputs of the bank details of the victims they target.
A phone call a customer received recently, began thus: "Your new card will have a photo chip and will carry a slew of bonus points for shopping." The caller, who identified herself as Rhea Sharna from SBI, Mumbai, further mentioned a range of other goodies the new card would offer.
The caller then sought the card number for verification. As the SBI customer kept mum as he was quite wary about the ongoing banking frauds, the voice on the other end persisted by spelling almost all the digits of card including the CVV (Card Verification Value).
He also received an SMS on his phone telling his card has been deactivated and that a new card with a photo chip has been dispatched through courier. Sensing trouble he immediately contacted an SBI employee who swore that no bank will ever ask for a card number and advised him to block the card immediately.
Similar cases have been reported from many different parts of the state. Interestingly, the fraudsters didn't even spare a Kerala minister, who recently reported a phishing bid to the cyber cell. Primary investigation is said to have traced the source of the phone calls to the minister to New Delhi.
Banks regularly issue notifications warning customers from divulging card numbers to anyone or any callers, no matter how convincingly they present themselves as bank authorities.
Awareness is the only way to resist this malpractice and those who have already fallen prey to the trap should instant file a complaint with the police or the cyber cell. “If the caller is found to have accessed the details of your ATM card you should immediately block the card and apply for a new one,” manager of a prominent bank at Kottayam said, “and you can even file a complaint with the cyber cell.”
Cyber cell, a wing of the Kerala police department, deals with the complaints related to crimes dealt through the internet and the phones. Cyberdome, headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram, conducts online patrolling to prevent cyber crimes.