Few months back when I was in my home town a person with North Indian accent called me from a mobile and introduced himself as an executive of a reputed bank’s Debit Cards division. He narrated my name, email id and the complete address of my previous rented house at Thiruvananthapuram where I stayed before three years and informed that they intend to issue a new Debit Card against my old card.
He asked my debit card number for verification and I refused to divulge it and asked, “What is the need of giving card number if you are from the banks debit cards division?” He replied that he was asking it only for the purpose of verification and that is why he didn’t ask any other information such as PIN number or other personal details. He also told that I might be aware that it is not possible to misuse debit card without PIN number. I hesitated to give him the details and told that the card was not with me at that time.
Again, he called me the next day and informed that they wanted to dispatch the card that day itself due to the annual closing and asked the old card number and my present address for sending the new card. He appreciated my precaution and assured again that misuse of Debit Card without PIN number is not at all possible. This time his words convinced me and I gave him my Debit Card No & Address. Within few seconds I received an SMS in my mob stating that my new Debit Card has been dispatched through Speed Post.
He then informed me that the reward points in my previous card was used and advised me to use it for doing online purchases. He told that he will send an SMS with the details of the reward points accumulated in my account. Immediately I got an SMS from my bank that contained One Time Password for paying Rs.9797.00 to EBAY from my debit card number given to him. I realized that it was an attempt to cheat me and got alert. He now more politely asked me to the ‘Code Number’ given at the end of the SMS so that he can credit the reward points for the new card in my account.
I asked him why should I pay Rs.9,797/- to EBAY where as I have not made any online purchase and warned him of Police action for his cheating act. He now blackmailed me that they will cancel my all my debit cards and also impose a penalty of Rs.2, 700/- from my account as cancellation charge of the new card issued. As a precaution, I immediately blocked my Debit Card and luckily I have not suffered any loss.
Immediately I lodged a Police Complaint at the local Police Station and also with the Commissioner of Police at Thiruvananthapuram because this group might have cheated a good number of public as the way they speak is same as that of Call Centre Executives and one may easily fall prey to their cheating tactics. But so far I have not heard anything from the Kerala Police about the action taken in this regard. May be they are too busy with the infamous scandals and may act only after a person got cheated in terms of lakhs and crores.
I traced the mobile number of the caller and found that it was from New Delhi. I suspect that this is the work of a well organized group and the involvement of few black sheep from the bank’s cards division or some insurance companies cannot be ruled out as they were in possession of my detailed previous address at Thiruvananthapuram where I resided before 3 years. Moreover, I have not recorded the address of the rented house anywhere except for applying an ATM card from my bank and for obtaining Health Insurance from an insurance company.
With the development of smart phone technology and the enormous increase in number of users using different APPs we became vulnerable to privacy intrusion and people getting access to our personal data becomes easy than earlier. Therefore, we should be more cautious while receiving calls from unknown persons and should never reveal crucial data such as Passwords, PIN Number etc under any circumstances. The law enforcing agencies should use the expertise of the Cyber Cell to bring the culprits under the clutches of law before many innocent people loss their hard earned money to the new breed of unscrupulous educated gang members.
