Beware of SMS, email and call scams: RBI | Fusion - WeRIndia

Digital payments have been increasing in the country for the past few years.  The increasing digital transactions lead to increasing frauds as well.

To create awareness on increasing fraudulent transactions, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cautioned against different types of fraud. It released a booklet that has been compiled from various incidents reported from across the country. The booklet aimed to provide practical information to people who are not experienced in digital modes of financial transactions.

Here are the cautions issued by the RBI:

Fraudsters adopt various ways to mislead people to steal their personal and financial data.

Some of them are mentioned below:

In SMS, email and call scams, fraudsters dupe people by sending fake messages in instant messaging applications or SMS. They use the logo of a famous NBFC as a profile picture for inducing credibility in people. They even share a fake NBFC ID card, Aadhaar and PAN card. They deceive in the name of loan offers. If anybody responds to them, they will issue fake sanction letters and cheques to them and demand payment for various charges. They will switch off the phone after receiving money from borrowers.

If you don’t want to fall prey to such types of scams, don’t believe in illicit loan offers or scam messages and calls.

Don’t make any payment to anybody without checking their authenticity. Also, never share your personal or financial information with unknown people. Also, don’t respond to fake emails and open suspicious attachments or phishing links.

There are other scams like OTP based frauds. Under this, fraudsters send messages or emails offering loans to customers and ask them to contact on a mobile number. If anybody calls the number, fraudsters collect their financial information and induce them to share the OTP received on their mobile number. Then, they will withdraw money from the customers’ accounts.

To prevent these scams, never share the OTP or PIN with anybody. If you want to contact a bank or NBFC, visit their official website or branch to avail their services.

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