Online banking fraud alert
RBI, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, State Bank of India and several other banks have issued warning against an online banking or net banking fraud that scammers cheating people of their hard-earned money with a new technique.
As online banking has reduced customers tensions for basic transactions and allow individuals to conduct financial transactions on a fingertip via the Internet. Through online banking one can easily do a cashless transaction like online shopping, ordering food online. However, along with a bunch of ease, online banking comes with risk and fraud threat.
Recently, ordering food online cost an Indore techie whopping Rs 2.28 lakh. According to reports, 42-year-old software engineer lost Rs 2.28 lakh when while ordering food online he saw that Rs 280 was deducted from his bank account for some of his previous transaction.
To claim a refund, he called up to support the team of the payment gateway company. A couple of days later, he got a call from a man (fraudster) claiming to be a customer support executive and promised him to offer a refund.
The fraudster then asked him to download a remote device control app on his phone and share the login key, siting technical glitch.
The man felt something suspicious about the caller and this ‘refund process’. He then tried to transfer all the money from his account to his wife’s account, unfortunately, he failed. Then he contacted his bank to get his account blocked but instead, it left online banking on his account active and only disabled his debit cards. The very next day techie found out that Rs 2.28 lakh was stolen from his bank account in 15 successful transactions.
Fraudster got unauthorised access to his smartphone through remote device control apps like AnyDesk and stole all his hard-earned money.
ALSO READ: Online banking fraud: 7 tips to ensure fraudsters can't swindle your money
Online Banking Fraud: How it is executed
- Fraudster call users and to draw attention, they represent themselves as the bank's representative.
- To fool you, fraudster makes sure that the call is genuinely from the bank. They pretend as verifying your banking details such as name, date of birth and mobile number.
- The fraudster then tries to scare you that your card, mobile banking will get blocked due to the ongoing issues in the App. Then they offer solutions to fix the issues.
- Once hacker convinced you to believe their words, they will ask you to download an app to fix the problem. This app can be any AnyDesk or any other remote device control app like it.
- Once you download the AnyDesk app or a similar one, it will ask you for privacy permissions just like another regular app.
- The fraudster will then ask you for a 9 digits app code, which is generated in your phone.
- As soon as the fraud caller gets 9-digit code from you, he will ask you to grant permission from your phone.
- Now when the app gets all permissions required, the caller starts to take full control of your phone without your knowledge.
- After getting full access to your phone, a hacker steals passwords and transact with your UPI account.
- In another way, fraudsters might send one SMS and asks you to forward it on another number which he gives you. After the message is successfully sent, this allows the fraudster to link your mobile number or account through UPI to their mobile.
- Also, fraudsters send a 'collect request' or a refund request to your virtual payment address (VPA). Most users authorise these requests because they think they will get a refund for some transactions.
Online Banking Fraud: How to avoid getting trapped
- Notably, this method is very safe for hackers and they can trap anyone in their web with its help. Hence, users are advised to not to attend such calls or disconnect it immediately as no bank official personally call users to fix any issues.
- Always avoid sharing bank accounts details over the phone. Also, if you have any doubt or issues, prefer visiting the bank branch.
