Fraudsters have unlocked new ways to steal money from your bank account : Manish Agrawal

Udaipur : Scammers are now luring victims to share their confidential banking and personal information using social engineering tactics. They are enticing their targets through a combination of too good to be true offers, promise of help and sometimes even through threats.

According to Mr. Manish Agrawal, Head Credit Intelligence and Control, HDFC Bank, There has been a rapid surge in usage of digital platforms for making payments and other banking transactions. While this has led to a significant improvement in customer convenience, fraudsters have also become motivated to use digital routes to steal money. As the ease of doing financial transactions improved, attempts to fraud the customers have equally been straight through. Seamless transaction flow gives no time to customer if he/she authorises the transaction in favour of fraudsters.

The digital frauds have seen a makeover especially since the beginning of the pandemic and are now becoming sophisticated enough to gain people’s trust. Fraudsters are using innovative methods to defraud common and gullible individuals, including those who areand are not entirely familiar with the techno-financial ecosystem.

Scammers are generally concentrated in peripheral areas around metros and urban centres to avoid actions from metro/urban police and law enforcement agencies.

Bankers and law enforcement officials have been receiving reports/complaints in recent months about customers falling prey to cyber frauds in the name of KYC update, fake marketplace listings, job scams, and false customer care numbers. The usual modus operandi in such cases include receipt of unsolicited calls, text messages, e-mails, etc. with a link urging customers to share details of their bank accounts, login credentials, card information, PINs, and OTPs. Sometimes unauthorized and unverified mobile apps are used to take control of the victim’s phone to gain access to confidential information.

In such attacks, imposters call or approach the customers pretending to be bankers / insurance agents / healthcare workers / government officials or local shopkeepers. They seek confirmation of the secure credentials by sharing details such as name / date of birth to gain confidence and offers critical and essential services. Even they send customized payment link to customers for making payment in return of service.

In some cases, the imposters even put pressure on customers to share confidential details urgently citing emergency, supply shortage of critical medical care products, account blocking, and similar other threats. These credentials are then used to defraud the customers.

It should be noted that customers are not required to authenticate through OTP or PIN for receiving any money in their bank accounts and any such request for OTP/PIN should raise an alarm.

Today, the fraudsters have extended their modus operandi, whereby they are even availing loans impersonating as genuine customer by using the credentials which are provided by genuine customers to agents in the market for availing loans, services, mobile connection, updating records in the existing facility, etc. It is important that while providing such documents to any agents etc., purpose for the submission should clearly be mentioned on the face of document.

The bank has zero tolerance on any misconduct, financial or otherwise and actions by updating such records in the industry and internal data base; the bank also reports to law enforcement agencies for taking appropriate action.

Many of theonline frauds are now being perpetrated during weekdays and working hours to trick customers into believing that the calls and offers are legitimate.

A fraud dispute time analysis by HDFC Bank revealed that in the first three months of this financial year, 65-70% of cyber frauds happened between 7.00 AM and 7.00 PM.

The findings further revealed that 80-85% of the affected customers were in the age group 22-50, and supposedly belonged to the more tech savvy age bracket.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (“MHA”), with effect from June 17, 2021, has operationalized a centralised helpline number, 155260, and a reporting platform where victims can report incidents of cyber fraud.

The helpline is manned by respective state police and reported incidents are handled through the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, which is integrated with law enforcement agencies, banks, and financial institutions.

Additionally, HDFC Bank has been doing Secure Banking Campaigns through social media, text messages, e-mails, and periodic notifications to its customers, largely focusing on latest fraud modus operandi with dos and don’ts on digital banking.