Airtel KYC Fraud: How to Stay Safe from Scammers

Airtel KYC Fraud: Scammers never seem to stop trying new ways to fool innocent customers. Now, they go hunting again and this time in the name of Airtel. A new scam has been circulating under the guise of the Airtel KYC service that asks for all bank details as a solution to a bogus problem. The scam has already claimed a couple of innocent users who fell victim to these scammers.

Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal has contacted his Airtel clients, warning them about the problem that has reportedly targeted a couple of innocent clients. He emphasizes the fact that neither Airtel nor any of its banking partners will contact the customer and ask for confidential details, especially over the phone.

Airtel CEO warns of new KYC fraud

Mr Vittal shared in an email to his customers, "The customers can get calls or messages from the fraudster claiming to be from a bank or financial institution and ask for account details or an OTP to unblock or renew the existing bank account. The details are then used to withdraw money from the customer's bank account. I urge you therefore to pay heed and proceed with care and do not share any financial or personal information like customer ID, MPIN, OTP, etc over the phone."

Vittal also warned against any scammer trying to mislead the customer by sending links to download a fake banking app or something else. These scammers can often impersonate Airtel executives and trick you into sharing their credentials.

"If a customer downloads one of these, he will be asked to enter all his bank details as well as his MPIN thereby granting the fraudster in question complete access to your bank details. Please avoid such suspicious websites and apps and avoid sharing any confidential information via email or through a click on any suspicious link in the email, even if the request seems to be from authorities like the Income Tax Department, Visa, or MasterCard, etc," Vittal further elaborated.

How to stay safe from scammers:

- Do not share your bank details with anyone over the phone. This includes net banking password, net banking ID, any unverified OTP or IFSC code.

- Do not click on links shared by any caller. Links may contain malware.

- Do not make any payment above the UPI to any customer representative of a telecommunications company, bank or other institution.