Page 26 - PR COMMUNICATION AGE AUGUST 2015 SAMPLE
P. 26
SIM swap
fraud?
F inancial transactions are Once the fraudsters have your personal one issued to someone else with fake
slowly but surely moving from information, the first thing they will do papers.
cash to electronic medium, is get your SIM card blocked. Next, a
especially with both the gov- duplicate of your SIM card is obtained Also, never disclose your Internet bank-
ernment and the central bank by visiting the mobile operator’s retail ing password or personal identification
emphasising on cashless and paperless outlet with fake identity proof. The number (PIN) to anyone. In case some-
transactions. While technology makes mobile operator deactivates the genu- one calls you for details such as the
banking more convenient, it also ex- ine SIM card, which was blocked, and password or PIN, you will immediately
poses customers to various risks such as issues a new SIM to the fraudsters. know that this is a fake caller. You
phishing, identity theft, card skimming, Once they have a new SIM card, it is should also always remember that
vishing and cyber stalking. SIM swap simple to generate a one-time pass- banks will never ask you for your PIN
fraud is one such risk. Here is a look at word (OTP) required for transactions or any kind of password.
how it happens and what you can do using the stolen banking information.
to save yourself from becoming a vic- Even when you call the customer care,
tim to such a fraud. How to avoid being you are asked to key in your password.
cheated? In fact, you may be asked to not reveal
How does it happen? the details to the customer care ex-
Though this sort of fraud is not com- ecutive. If, however you feel that you
The fraudster will first collect your per- monplace in India yet, banks have have fallen victim of fraud, inform your
sonal banking information through started to warn and educate their cus- bank as soon as possible.
phishing, vishing, smishing or any other tomers about SIM card swap fraud. For
means. Phishing means collecting infor- instance, earlier in July, HDFC Bank Ltd Apart from these steps, you can also
mation from a customer by sending had sent out an email to its customers ask your bank to provide details of
fake mails, while vishing means calling pointing out measures they should take your financial transactions through
a customer posing as a bank executive to protect themselves from such fraud. two channels. For instance, register
or an official from the central bank and for SMS as well as email alerts so
collecting private information for iden- Here are a few steps you, too, can that even if your SIM card has been
tity theft. Under smishing, the cus- take. If your mobile phone has suddenly blocked, you will still have an email
tomer receives an SMS with a web link, stopped working and you don’t know alert. Check your bank statements and
which, if clicked, downloads a malicious why, check with your telecom opera- transaction history properly so that
programme that leads to theft of tor to make sure that your SIM card any unusual transactions are spotted.
data. has not been deactivated and another (Source : Mint)
If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten
22 PR COMMUNICATION AGE August 2015
