Cyber Criminals Resort To New Ways Of Duping Debit Card-Holders

Hyderabad: Cyber criminals are resorting to novel methods to trick people, police say. So far, these conmen had been posing as bank representatives and saying that their debit card had expired. They sought details from gullible card-holders for its renewal.

However, with more customers wizening up to these methods, the online confidence tricksters have resorted to new strategies.

Without the knowledge of new account-holders, they are drawing money from their accounts by procuring their details from e-commerce sites and using booking applications like the redbus app in the case of those who would have used these websites/apps.

Police say that cyber criminals are using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) for the PIN number and then cloning cards. So far, cyber criminals have skimmed Rs. 3 crore across the country in this way, according to the cops.

It was with a complaint lodged by the ICICI Bank's Cyberabad regional manager that this major crime came to light.

Cybercrime officials swung into action and took 10 interstate criminals belonging to Jamtara in Jharkhand and Bardhman region of West Bengal. They were produced before the media by police officials led by the commissioner, CP Sajjanar.

The police revealed that the criminals mainly targeted those who used the redbus app to make online reservations. They would also call the ICICI customer care call centre and type in the account number seeking to know about the balance. They would type some random number and between March 13 and 30, made as many as 3 lakh calls.

As it turned in the case of 3500 calls the PIN numbers keyed in by them found a perfect match. Using more than 1000 cards across 12 states in the country, they withdrew amounts ranging from Rs. 35,000 to one lakh from each account.

The cyber criminals made their calls from about 900 unregistered mobile phone numbers.

With the number of calls to their call centre going up and more and more complaints pouring in on hacking of bank accounts, the ICICI took it up. It also asked the developers of the Redbus app to strengthen its security features.

The bank said that it would cooperate with the police in this matter and make sure that its customers do not suffer in any way.

Also Read: 3 Cyber Criminals Held In Jharkhand