We’ve seen the Paytm KYC fraud recently and came to know that the entire fraud was operated on a countrywide level which has already grabbed a couple of misinformed people.
The frauds are not going to instantly generate a sense of righteousness or empathy towards their victim, so how to stop them? The answer is by being a little more informed on how they operate and remembering how you can prevent it.
Lottery Scam, for the Ultimate Fools
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book of ‘101 Ways of Doing Frauds’ and have been used to get many people’s money washed away.
The scam works in a way where it offers you some kind of irresistible rewards such as 1 million dollars from Nigerian Price stuck on Airport and in dire need of your help to Coca-Cola offering you a lifetime worth of Coke (The beverage one) in exchange for something.
These schemes may seem very childish or some would say ‘who in the world would even get caught in scheme’s transparent as that’ but its exactly where they are wrong.
The transparent schemes are a way to filter out the ultimate fool from the broader audience who doesn’t have enough social awareness as not to reply to this childish scam. These types of people could be easily fooled without much analytical knowledge or any strenuous effort.
The general category consisting of the ultimate fool victims are people who have crossed a certain age and are potentially bad with technology.
Don’t go helping the Nigerian prince if he needs your hard-earned 500 dollars to get out of that Airport who demands money in order to let the prince of Nigeria leave Airport premises or the joke’s on you.
Share Your OTP, Wash Away Your Account
Sharing your OTP over the online or telephonic medium is the way of saying ‘Come take my money’ yourself. Almost all the banks and financial organisation operating on the online medium sends out daily or weekly emails or flyers regarding the facts that you should not share your OTP and that is one true fact you should live by.
The frauds may seem like your Uncle which you’ve not been in touch with or maybe even the manager of your bank branch threatening to close off your account this very minute, but just get it in your mindset that anybody asking for information such as these is definitely a fraud.
Refrain From Giving out Private Credentials
There are certain websites that may give out amazing offers or free deals but they need to have you verified by first asking you to create your account. The next step involves you filling out information that is not generic and may end up giving out more than you already should.
The website may lead to nothing but loops of the advertisement or redirecting to other websites in a series and you may end up giving out information which they will later use against you when they’d be performing actual fraud.
Beware of Third-Party Access Frauds
The recent Paytm fraud was possible with the help of a software called Teamviewer, which allows a third party user to get access to your desktop screen and can watch whatever is in there from the comfort of their desk.
This way, they can make you enter your private credentials into the trusted apps such as Paytm and note down every information that you’ve just given out thinking that Paytm is secure and that you are at no risk. Well! Paytm is secured on many fronts but what can they do when you have already given access to a peeping eye.
You should instantly disagree to allow anyone asking for access to software that can access your screen. Two popular screen accessing Softwares are Teamviewer and AnyDesk, you should refrain even talking to anybody that mentions these two software online or on call, it’ll save you some bucks.
These are some common methods the frauds try to get in your system or take advantage of you and while you prevent yourself from it by being aware, do help them by reporting these numbers onto Payments website they were doing frauds in the name of and Cybersecurity department.
Government of India have also started an initiative to facilitate victims/complainants to report cyber crime complaints online. This portal caters to complaints pertaining to cyber crimes only with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children
