Cyber frauds on rise in Vijayawada city

Vijayawada: Taking advantage of loopholes in technology and ignorance of people, criminals are targeting the gullible bank customers and cleverly transferring their money from their bank accounts to accounts of other persons.

The cybercrime police in Vijayawada are receiving complaints regularly from bank customers about the fraud and cheating cases committed by criminals. In Vijayawada, the cybercrime police registered 124 cases this year from January to October. Of which more than 70 per cent of cases are related to One-time Password (OTP), which is done for online transactions single time.

Last year, the cybercrime police booked 148 cases. The cheaters collect the bank account holders name, account number, ATM debit card and credit and use the numbers to rob the gullible customers.

They collect the numbers from outsourcing agencies which do the government works like preparation of Aadhaar cards etc. The culprits make phone calls from remote areas like Jamtara in Jharkhand and dupe the bank account holders by saying that they were calling from bank and their debit card tenure would expire soon.

The criminals tell the name of customer, bank account number and ATM number and later ask for OTP. They use OTP number to transfer the money into other accounts in less than 30 seconds. They make believe that they are from bank and put pressure on the customer to tell the OTP, which is generated by the respective banks. Before that they do the ground work to transfer the money to others’ account.

Once the money is lost, it will be very difficult to get back from the cheaters. Cybercrimes circle inspector K Srinivasa Rao has suggested the people not to reveal their OTPs to others. He said the OTP is very confidential and should not be disclosed to others.

He said the criminals make calls to customers introducing themselves as bank managers and cleverly obtain the OTP. He suggested the customers to meet the bank staff or manager personally to enquire about the debit and credit cards and expiry date.

They select the poor people living in remote areas of Jantara in Jharkhand and open bank accounts on their names, but they keep the debit cards with them.

Unaware of cheating mentality of these criminals, poor people are opening their bank accounts after taking some amount. After transferring the money into the accounts of poor people, the criminals withdraw cash from debit cards.

The circle inspector said the Vijayawada cyber police teams went to Jantara area in Jharkhand to enquire the activities of criminals.
Besides, the OTP cases, the cheaters are duping bank customers saying that the latter had won lottery and prizes like cars etc and ask them to deposit some amount to get huge amount of lottery. The gullible people are believing their words and depositing money in the accounts of others.

A woman has deposited Rs 74,000 in the bank in Bhavanipuram, Vijayawada recently after receiving SMS that she won a Tata Safari in a lottery.
The woman Shaik Bibi blindly trusted the message and met some persons and deposited Rs 6,500 and Rs 67,500 in two installments. But, she did not get the car and lodged a complaint with Bhavanipuram police. The police registered a case and took up investigation.

A B Tech student lost Rs 5,000 four days ago when he received a call from unknown person and asked about the OTP. He is a regular customer of online shopping companies and trusted the caller and told the ATP. He lost the money of Rs 5000 and lodged a complaint with cybercrime station two days ago about the fraud.