Thiruvananthapuram: The city police appealed to victims who lose money through ‘One Time Password (OTP) fraud’ to inform them within an hour to prevent permanent loss of money. Over the last few days, the cyber police managed to retrieve around Rs 4 lakh that victims nearly lost by compromising OTP to fraudsters. Victims were often called up and convinced by frauds with attractive offers.
They swindle money after learning card details and OTP that victims receive from banks. The victims often realise the fraud only when SMSs alerts from bank reach them. As per police, they have powers to alert banking wallet system administrators and withhold the transactions. “However the chances of retrieving money dwindle after two hours of fraud. Victims should not delete the SMS showing the money had been debited,” city police commissioner P. Prakash said. The fraud
A youth hailing from Chempazhanthy who works at a private hospital had recently recharged his DTH connection for a huge amount. He had entered the card details and an OTP from bank on a pop up bar that showed on a popular electronic payment website. “Sometime later he received an SMS from the bank. He lost '49,166 in 11 transactions. Unfortunately, the victim was fast asleep when he started losing money. The matter was reported late to Medical College Hospital, officials said. The victims can ring up cyber police station on 0471-2333090 or contract cyber cell attached to Commissioners’ office on 0471-2329107 and 94979 75998.
