FINANCIAL FRAUDS

FINANCIAL FRAUDS

TOPIC: Economy

Context- Sharing confidential info one of the major causes behind financial frauds, says RBI.

Concept-

• RBI in a press release while announced a booklet, “BE(A)WARE” on the common modus operandi used by fraudsters and precautions to be taken while carrying out various financial transactions.
  • The booklet aims to enhance public awareness about various types of financial frauds perpetrated on gullible customers while carrying out digital payments and other financial transactions.
• Fraudsters attempt to get confidential details like user id, login / transaction password, OTP (one time password), debit / credit card details such as PIN, CVV, expiry date and other personal information.
• Some of the typical modus operandi being used by fraudsters are –
  • Vishing – phone calls pretending to be from bank / non-bank e-wallet providers / telecom service providers in order to lure customers into sharing confidential details in the pretext of KYC-updation, unblocking of account / SIM-card, crediting debited amount, etc.
  • Phishing – spoofed emails and / or SMSs designed to dupe customers into thinking that the communication has originated from their bank / e-wallet provider and contain links to extract confidential details.
  • Remote Access – by luring customer to download an application on their mobile phone / computer which is able to access all the customers’ data on that customer device.
  • Misuse the ‘collect request’ feature of UPI by sending fake payment requests with messages like ‘Enter your UPI PIN’ to receive money.
  • Fake numbers of banks / e-wallet providers on webpages / social media and displayed by search engines, etc.