Hyderabad: Cybercrime police officers say they are seeing a rise in debit card frauds, especially as fraudsters target new bank customers who are unfamiliar with the security measures of banks. When scamsters call up, posing as bank officials and cite made-up rules liberally using terms such as ‘debit card upgrade’ and ‘demonetisation’, customers tend to believe them. “People are confused over banking rules post-demonetisation. There are also now a large number of new customers who have got debit cards,” a senior cybercrime officer said.
For instance, when SBI announced new charges for transactions, scamsters targeted SBI customers.
Despite banks, police and the media repeatedly trying to raise awareness about fake callers, people still fall prey to them. Another cybercrime official said that fraudsters have been able to obtain details of account-holders from bank staff. “There are cases where fraudsters have obtained identity details of account holders from employees of the bank before they call their victim. During the call, the scamster mentions the target’s name and bank branch, and that’s enough to convince the victim,” the officer said.
