Timely complaint by the victims and swift action by Cyber Police Kashmir led to recovery of money in OTP/vishing fraud cases. A shopkeeper, aged 70 years, hailing from South Kashmir’s Tral received a call from fraudsters posing as staff of the Jammu & Kashmir Bank Headquarters. The caller told him that his ATM Card was going to be blocked and in order to renew the same he had to give the card details. The shopkeeper, who is illiterate, took the help of his minor granddaughter and did not even mind to share the OTP, he received shortly. The shopkeeper smelled foul play only when he received a message that an amount of Rs 95,000 was debited from his account. He then frantically contacted the Cyber Police Station Kashmir and lodged report. Financial Fraud Team of Cyber Police Kashmir acted swiftly and succeeded in saving the whole amount of victim. In similar OTP/vishing fraud case, Cyber Police Station Kashmir got refunded Rs 72,938/- in current week where a Govt employee of Srinagar city shared his Debit card details in a same manner. The victim quickly contacted Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar and Cyber Police Station managed to save the whole amount. In OTP/Vishing fraud, victims get phone calls from fraudsters claiming to be officers from different Bank. The gullible people then pass on the card details and other information sought by the caller/fraudster believing them to be genuine employee. They only realise that it was a case of online fraud when they get a message that their bank accounts have been debited. Usually the complaints in such cases are reported/ registered only much later, making it hard for the Cyber Police to take steps to recover and refund the money. Cyber Police Station, Kashmir Zone Srinagar is advising time and again to general public to remain very careful while receiving such calls from unknown sources with regard to Vishing/OTP frauds. SSP Cyber Police Kashmir Tahir Ashraf said, ‘we are continuously advising general masses not to share the ATM Card Details (Debit/Credit Card), bank details, account details, personal details, OTP etc to anyone so that they may not lose their hard earned money”.
