Don’t share card details: Police warn public

THANE: Satish, an IT professional, was elated when he was intimated that he had won a Rs5-lakh lottery. The caller from Satish’s bank, or so he thought, asked him to share his credit card details to claim the lottery money.

He got suspicious and called imposter’s bluff by asking probing questions. Frightened, the imposter disconnected the call. Though Satish had a close shave, other people, who fell prey to such luring calls, were not as lucky.

The Thane cyber cell is alarmed over the rising number of debit and credit card impersonation cases.

This year till April, the police have registered 505 such cases compared to 1,497 in 2015.

The modus operandi followed by the fraudsters is similar. First, they zero in on a potential prey and persuade him/her to reveal card details.

They contact their targets on email and phone and promise them prize money.

Another pretext used to fool people is related to bank customer care.

The phone calls are mostly on weekends and public holidays when banks are closed.

It’s not only laymen who have been cheated of their cash but advocates, doctors, engineers and managers too have been conned.

The ever-growing technology with its negative points (phishing and hacking) has added to the muscle of online pirates who are always on the prowl to source bank data.

“We have conducted awareness programmes about different techniques employed by fraudsters to fool victims, but many people have been fooled,” a police inspector from Thane commissionerate, cyber cell department, said.

“We are keeping an eye on the online transaction. Victims never try to check the background of the caller and it is when they fall prey and lose all money. Citizens should also keep a close watch on their accounts,” said Jagdish Sawant, senior police inspector from Thane cyber cell.

He added that people should undertake regular bank visits and seek to aquire regular updates about their bank account s as this will help them to keep accused callers at bay.