Fraudsters on prowl, SBI warns customers of SMS scam

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 13

With an increasing use of technology, cyber frauds across the country are on the rise. Recently, two SMSes related to the SBI account and credit cards were received by several customers from an unknown number which read, “Dear Customer, Your SBI account or SBI Credit Card closed today contact now and update your Aadhaar or PAN details in the below link.” A link to a site is provided in the text that the customers are asked to update their Aadhaar or PAN card details on. If the customer submits the details, a one-time password (OTP) is generated, which, if shared on the site, the customer stands to lose money from his bank account.

Man loses Rs 50K

A city-based man recently lost around Rs 50,000 to this scam. Fraudsters directed him to a website. He was asked to share the OTP, and the moment he did, he lost the money. — Palvinder Singh, Cyber security expert

Don’t share details

Whenever a person receives such message, they must cross check on their bank’s official website... they must avoid sharing any personal details such as Aadhaar or bank account number. — Cyber cell officials

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, Palvinder Singh, a cyber security expert, revealed that the message had been doing the rounds for the past several days. “I have received so many calls and enquiries regarding the credibility of the message. I have instructed the customers not to open the link to the site and provide their Aadhaar or PAN card details. These fraudsters do not know the actual bank account numbers of customers. They just send the customer a random message and, the unsuspecting customer provides the details,” he added.

He added that some professional hackers or cyber criminals are behind this scam. “They are not only sending messages related to bank accounts or credit cards, several Paytm users, too, have received similar messages in which they were asked to re-verify the KYC details. Such incidents are occuring every day in India, and the only way to stop this, is to make the public aware of such cyber crimes,” Palvinder said. He further said, “A city-based man recently lost around Rs 50,000 to this scam. The fraudsters had told him that his PAN card details were required to be updated, else his debit card would be blocked. He was asked to share the OTP, and the moment he did, he lost money from his bank account”, he added.

Meanwhile, when checked with the cyber cell in the city, they confirmed that they had received complaints from residents regarding fraudulent SBI messages. No financial loss has been reported by anyone so far. The SBI, too, has posted an alert, asking SBI customers to beware of such scams.

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