Sethurathnam Ravi BSE Former Chairman, asks customers to remember mantra “Never Trust A Stranger” to avoid getting defrauded. According to the expert, the fraudsters succeed on account of customer’s need for rewards or better returns, increased spending limits, saving while spending and most importantly, carelessness.
As S Ravi says, “The advancement of technology, increased usage of digital platforms and mobile becoming a one stop device for various financial transactions, has eased the way of receiving and paying money and saving time in paying bills, making investments and also getting reward points. However, like each coin has two sides, this advantage comes with disadvantage of certain cyber threats, phishing, accounts getting hacked, bogus loan/ discount/ cash back offers”.
Apart from these there are various scams that are run by fraudsters such as credit limit updation, multi-level marketing, work from home, online shopping, social welfare schemes, financial help messages on social media/ through emails, use of data filled in various personal forms filled, google forms circulated, e-mails or text messages appearing to be from a legitimate site but are actually part of a scam looking to gain access to one’s accounts or personal information and kyc details shared with third party getting mis-utilized etc to name a few.
S Ravi BSE former chairman also shared details on the booklet that last year RBI had published named Raju and 40 thieves which details out the various modus operandi of fraud that are being used to deceive the customers as well as the checks one should make before making transactions. He also mentioned about the web series, ‘Jamtara’ that told the story of how youngsters wanting to make easy money are running successful phishing rackets by duping the vulnerable citizens.
Sethurathnam Ravi also mentioned that the customers are cheated through telephone calls asking for OTPs for transactions, sim cloning wherein the fraudster poses as the representative of Telecom Company and sells the idea of sim card upgrades which require Aadhaar details and unique SIM card number to be shared, transactions through payment links shared by unauthorized persons, easy loans on payment of advance fees, ATM frauds using skimming devices in the ATM unit, etc.
“Apart from being aware, one could protect themselves by updating their devices frequently to deal with new security threats, using multi-factor authentications of using security questions along with passcode/ PIN and having data backup as well as install software for protecting internet connection. One should always shop from secured websites and secured Wi-Fi networks. Last but not the least, don’t be embarrassed of getting cheated and report the matter to bank/financial institution/company, file a complaint on the Cyber Crime website at https://cybercrime.gov.in/ or call up their 24x7 Helpline 1930”, the former BSE Chairman S Ravi explained.
The fraudsters succeed increasingly nowadays as we seem to have forgotten what our elders taught us that Never Trust Strangers and Greed causes great Disaster, S Ravi says advising people to follow these mantras and always be alert of the frauds.
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