Hyderabad: Rs 149 crore lost to fraud, netizens still unwary

Hyderabad: Across India 50,438 people lost Rs 78.04 crore to ATM, debit and credit card and Internet banking frauds. Most of these were small savers, having less than Rs 1 lakh in the bank. This is a crime where the victims are mostly middle class. Another 1,866 people lost Rs 71 crore, totalling Rs 149 crore.

In the last year in Hyderabad, 107 cases were registered against such frauds.

ATM frauds are of two types: online and offline. In these, the data of the ATM, credit or debit card is stolen. An OTP is sent and the amount transferred into the criminal’s account.

Crime Investigation Department (CID) superintendent (cyber crimes) U. Rammohan says, “Fraudsters appro-ach the victim impersonating his or her bank manager, or an Aadhaar official, and collect data under the guise of rectifying their problems like linking Aadhaar, card details and other issues. They threaten to block the card to make the victim give out the details. They collect the SIM card by submitting fake documents. After cheating them they abandon the SIM, making it difficult for the cops to locate them.”

Mr K.C.S. Raghuvir, additional DCP, Hyderabad cyber crime police, said, “One of the methods is phishing. The fraudsters send a phishing email stating that the victim has won a prize or a lottery and asks them to fill details of their bank account. In some cases they lure victims into adult chat rooms and ask them to pay some amount to continue the chat. Many think that it is just Rs 10 or Rs 20 per day and pay them. During the payment the fraudsters collect the bank details”

In SIM swapping, the fraudsters trick the target to give out their details. The fraudsters use the data to get their own SIM card activated. They change the details at the bank and the OTPs are be forwarded to their mobile.

Mr Rammohan added, “most of the the cyber crimes are traced back to Jamtara in Jhark-hand, Malda in Bengal and Noida in  Delhi. Once they receive the money they transfer it into multiple accounts, making it difficult to recover it. They target people in south India”

Mr Raghuvir said that in ATM frauds, a skimmer is installed in the machine so that when a card is swiped at the machine, it captures the information stored on the card’s magnetic strip.

A camera is installed to capture the PIN number. Skimmers are usually installed in ATMs in busy areas. It is installed at night and collected the next day. Using the details captured, the fraudster transfers the money. In point of sale frauds, under the guise of transferring money, the card is swiped through the skimmer.

Advising on precautions one should take, Mr Raghuvir said, “Use ATMs that have security. Change your ATM PIN often and be cautious about any other devices installed. People should not change their PIN at ATMs. They should change it through the bank toll-free number.”

Mr Umesh Thota, a cyber security expert in Hyderabad said, “As long as there are ways to exploit people, people will exploit and get exploited We should be careful and check for skimming  machines. Use ATMs with security guards or ones within the bank or beside the bank but I advise people to use services like Paytm or gpay.”

To fight these frauds, the RBI has issued a circular to all banks to convert all existing Mag-Stripe cards to EMV Chip cards for all customers who have used their card internationally at least once. Still, the smart cards where the chips are installed are also vulnerable to fraud. RBI has directed banks to mandatorily put in place an Additional Factor of Authentica-tion (AFA) for all CNP transactions, to provide online alerts for all card transactions, terminals installed at merchant outlets and acquiring infrastructure that is currently operational on IP based solutions should be certified for PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standards) and PA-DSS (Payment Applications-Data Security Standards).