Since the pandemic began, we
relied more and more on the internet and it eventually made our life more digitalized. We have become more dependent on the internet during this pandemic;
hence we became more prone to cyber-attacks and online bank frauds, cyber bullying,
phishing etc. As per RBI report there is an increment of 28% in cases of
frauds. There were a total 8,707 cases in 2019-2020 and 1558 cases of frauds
were reported between April-June 2020 amounting to Rs 28,843 crore. In 2020 RBI
reported bank fraud amounting to 1.85 trillion Rs. In 2020 FTC 4.8 million reports.
This data reflects that a significant amount of people is affected by bank
frauds and a substantial amount was lost by people in these frauds. Online bank fraud is a
criminal act that occurs when a person uses illegal methods involving an IP
address and internet to rob or fraud people to steal money. It is punishable
under Information and Technology Act 2008 and Indian Penal Code, 1860. Bank
frauds are a very common method to steal money, even after so many guidelines
from RBI and various banks and other financial institutions people are still
likely to fall for such dubious acts.
Types of Bank Frauds-
Phishing
It is the most common way to defraud someone, in
this fraud you receive an email, seeming to be an original mail from your bank
account, or that you have won a lottery or your bank account will be
deactivated permanently and in order to avail any of this when you click on the
link it directly takes to an hoax website where they ask to feed your card,
bank details or complete the following survey to claim your prize money. And
all these personal details are used by spoofing websites to conduct fraud and
steal money from your account. And sometimes when you click on such mail, they
automatically install malware in your system to corrupt and steal data from
your system.
Vishing
It is a
method where a fraudster calls you claiming to be an official executive of a
bank. They scare you by saying that your card will be blocked, you have a
policy expiring soon and today is the last day to claim or sometimes they ask
you to share your OTP, CVV, PIN number and once you do that, they steal the
amount from your bank account.
Skimming
It is
also known as payment card fraud it is executed by capturing your credit or
debit card details. Some thieves install a device called a skimmer at a public
automatic teller machine, a fake card stripe reader which automatically
collects all your card details and stores it in itself. And later on, this device
is accessed by the thieves and card details are used to make duplicate cards so
that withdrawals can be made by them.
Identity
Theft
Is also
one of the most prevalent frauds these days and its cases are increasing
sharply. Here the fraudsters steal your personal information, social security
number and then get fake documents on your name and use them to apply for
credit cards, bank account, pan cards etc. On your name they avail services
like loan, credit, overdraft and run away with the cash and the wrong person
gets blamed. On a daily basis we register ourselves on various platforms or
fill out surveys where we give our identity details and give access to our
google accounts. From these sources they acquire their information and then
commit the said offence.
Procedure
to follow if you are a victim of Bank Fraud
If you
are victim of such fraud the firstly you need to contact your bank, NBFC or a
payment platform you using when defrauded, you can always connect through their
24*7 helpline and inform them immediately about such incident.
Then you
can ask the officials to block your card, upi account and bank account to stop
any further transactions.
Once this
is done you immediately file a cyber complaint in a nearby cyber cell and if
you are unable to access any cyber cell then file a normal police complaint in
the nearby police station.
You can
also report to CERT, a national nodal agency to respond to cyber cases.
Also keep
the supporting documents like mails, call details, messages, screenshots, bank
summary, ATM receipts, transaction id to corroborate your claims. According to the
Reserve Bank of India’s July 2017 notification, a customer is eligible
to get its full refund if fraud occurs due to negligence or deficiency of bank
or third-party breach and the customer has informed the bank within three
working days.
On the other hand, any fraud
happens because of the customers fault, for instance the customer revealed its
cvv, pin, otp etc then bank will not be liable to pay any amount.
Conclusion
People have to be extra aware of
such activities, these thieves or fraudsters have become so advanced in their
operation that people fall in their trap, they commit Hi-tech crimes and have a
very large operation. And it becomes extremely strenuous to locate such crime
as it can be committed from anywhere, these are faceless offenders difficult to
identify. Never fall for messages like you have won a lottery of 10,000 Rs and
the same has been deposited in your account, or scan any QR without verifying the
credentials also don’t use unauthenticated websites and payment methods to
conduct your purchase and payments. These offenders through websites like OLX,
magic bricks or quickr pretends that they are interested in your product or
property and send you a QR code to scan and the moment to scan and put your
details in it and your money vanishes. Even though we have stringent laws for
such offences, due to the wide scope of the internet and no territorial
barriers makes it more difficult for thieves to operate conveniently and it is
very difficult to recover your money once it is gone. So primarily it is the
duty of people to stay aware of such Ponzi schemes.
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