Credit-debit card frauds almost doubled; scamsters get creative
Got a call from a bank personnel asking privy details like one time password (OTP) and card verification value (CVV) number? Do not share these details and approach the police immediately, as they are not bank personnel but scamsters in disguise.
A recent data published by the Mumbai Police has revealed that the number of credit/debit card frauds have almost doubled from 461 in 2018 to 824 in 2019. The spurt in cyber crime can be attributed to the technological advances, which have enabled various banking operations at the tip of one’s fingers.
With progressing time, scamster too have evolved, who changed their paths from street crimes like chain snatching, pick pocketing and thefts, to credit/debit card frauds, whereby they can easily dupe people of lakhs of rupees by sitting within the comforts of four walls. This definitely paints an alarming picture, asserted Shomiron Dasgupta, a cyber expert. The most vulnerable section of the society that falls prey to such serious offences are senior citizens
and housewives.
Cyber criminals have become creative when it comes to duping people online, as what they do is just send a link through a message/email, which would direct them to a webpage and money will be siphoned off. An official explained, this modus operandi is used by conmen who hijack the online payments interface and siphon off the hard-earned money of unsuspecting users.
Another trend in cyber crime that has seen Mumbaikars falling prey to is the wine shop listing fraud. In the last five months, more than 35 cases were reported, mostly in city suburbs like Khar, Bandra and Andheri. Victims were duped of lakhs of rupees by criminals, who changed the number of a local wine shop on the Google listings, siphoning off the money on the pretext of getting the liquor delivered at home.
A senior cyber police official said, “Despite various reminders given to citizens to not share their privy banking details and one time passwords (OTP), they continue to turn a deaf ear and fall prey to cyber crimes at large. With a whopping spurt in net banking and credit/debit card frauds, we have started to educate citizens and also banks, to keep criminals at bay.”