On Saturday, the 20th November 2021, at about 10 AM, a person who introduced himself as Sushant Gupta rang me up and told me that he had been appointed as my 'personal banker' by the pension branch of SBI.
He congratulated me on having turned 80 and said that this facility is being extended only to the super senior citizens.
He then read out the particulars of my service like my service number; dates of birth, commission & retirement and the name of my spouse.
He asked me to confirm that this information is correct so that he could serve me. The range of services he offered to provide was an issue of life certificate, giving details of pension and TDS recovered by the bank.
He even said that since my residence is close to his house, he could bring cash to my house and collect the cheque.
Some private banks like HDFC nominate 'personal bankers' for their 'Imperia' clients and therefore, I believed him and let the discussion proceed.
After a while, he informed me that the debit card associated with my pension account was due for renewal.
Apparently, he knew the card number. He told me that he could renew the card 'online' if I gave him the OTP which had been sent by the bank on my phone.
I became suspicious and asked him to tell me the name of his boss and the location of his office.
He provided me with a name and gave me his ID as 90SBI24003. At this point, he dithered and appeared to be nervous.
I asked him to tell me his precise location at that point in time so that I could send my driver to meet him in person so that I could be sure of his credentials. He closed the call.
A few minutes later I got four messages on my phone, (the amounts varied) all of which said:
20 Nov 2021 10:12AM
OTP for online purchase of Rs 101.00 at FLIPCART PAYMENTS thru Debit Card 4*********1 is ******. Do not share this with anyone.
Since I did not give him the OTP, no money was deducted from my account.
I went to the bank soon after the phone call, and they told me that there is no such facility in SBI and there is no one by that name and ID in their bank.
As a check, I asked my driver to ring up on the number, 7501459850 from which he had rung up.
It emerged that the number is registered in West Bengal. My driver told him that he was the son of an elderly ESM and he wanted to deposit some money, and sought an appointment to meet him.
The man said that he worked from home, and could not meet him for at least two weeks. In retrospect, it occurs to me that all that information which he gave me about my pension is contained in the e-PPO which can be easily hacked.
I then went over to my bank and informed the manager. He told me that this is a frequent occurrence and a few naïve persons have lost varying amounts of money, by giving away their OTP. He advised me to lodge an FIR in the "Cyber Crimes Cell".
At the captioned police office, I was told that they have received more than 7,000 cases to date and in many cases, gullible persons have lost money. One rich businessman appears to have suffered a loss of over a crore of rupees.
Some suggestions he gave were:
• Maintain a very small balance in the account that is linked with a debit card.
• Do not entertain any phone call from an unknown caller.
• Do NOT give the OTP to anyone, no matter how well you know the person.
• Elderly persons should use 'net banking' only if they know all the rules of the game.
The Brighter Side of this Sordid Story
My neighbor who always looks at the positive side of life said, and he made a valid point.
"Sir, have you noticed that the bank robberies have reduced a lot during the last few decades. In fact, petty thefts and the cases of chain snatching have diminished considerably. Crime has become non-violent in the land of Mahatma Gandhi!"
If you have had a similar experience, please share it with us. And if you have any more safety measures to add to the above list, please educate us.
I am sanguine that you will take all precautions, and not fall into the trap of hackers.
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