S Ravi On The Increasing Cyber Frauds In India – ‘Never Trust Strangers’ Should Be The Watchword For Customers

Sethurathnam Ravi BSE Former Chairman, asks customers to remember the mantra “Never Trust A Stranger” to avoid getting defrauded. According to the expert, the fraudsters succeed on account of customers’ 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 the disadvantage of certain cyber threats, phishing, accounts getting hacked, bogus loan/ discount/ cash back offers”.Apart from these various scams 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 part of a scam looking to gain access to one’s accounts or personal information and KYC details shared with the 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 detail 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 the web series, ‘Jamtara’ that told the story of how youngsters wanting to make easy money are running successful phishing rackets by duping vulnerable citizens.

Sethurathnam Ravi also mentioned that the customers are cheated through telephone calls asking for OTPs for transactions, and 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 a 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 installing 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 by getting cheated and report the matter to a 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.

Fraudsters succeed increasingly nowadays as we seem to have forgotten what our elders taught us Never Trust Strangers and Greed causes great Disaster, S Ravi says advising people to follow these mantras and always be alert for the frauds.