Maran Loses Rs 99,999 to Cyber Criminals, Raises Concerns on Data Security

Chennai: Lok Sabha MP Dayanidhi Maran took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share a distressing experience of a financial cybercrime and raised questions about the security of private data in the digital age. Maran has been actively advocating for cybercrime victims in his role as an MP. He has now become a victim himself.

Narrating the incident on X, he said, "On Sunday, ₹99,999 was stolen from my @AxisBank personal savings account through a net banking transfer via @IDFCFIRSTBank - @BillDesk, bypassing all normal safety protocols."

An OTP, the standard protocol for such transactions, was neither generated nor received by my linked mobile number. Instead, a call was made to the account's joint holder - my wife's number and the fraudsters had the gall to ask if the transaction had taken place. They pretended to be from the bank but had
@cbic_india on their display picture. This confirmed my suspicions, and I immediately proceeded to block all activities on my account, Maran wrote.

With this incident, Maran has questioned the ease with which the fraudsters accessed personal information and breached security protocols. He says, "This wasn't a phishing attack, nor were any sensitive details divulged."
@AxisBank was clueless as to how the attack had happened, nor could they give any solid explanation for why the OTP was not required from my number for the transaction to take place, he wrote. This raises questions: how the breach?

Cybersecurity statistics indicate that financial fraud has been on the rise in India.