This situation is
enough to shake anyone: An SMS in the wee hours at night stating that a
transaction has been through on your debit card kilometers away. And, especially, when the card is right in your
possession, the despair would certainly know no measure.
Along with being a
boon to us, the increasing digital means have also turned out to be a threat at
times. And, when it involves financial transactions, the risk of frauds can
hardly be ignored.
It started just as a
normal day for Vivek Pal Singh, a grade three employee at the sugarcane
department until he received a received an unexpected alert on his cellphone
for some debit card transactions. To his utter shock, the Chowk resident in
Lucknow found that Rs.12,500/- was debited from his account for a handset
bought in Chennai. An unpredicted transaction done at a location 2,040 km away
was enough to make the victim go completely crazy.
Well, he is not the only victim. Visakha Sen, resident of
Kalyanpur, received a message stating an ATM withdrawal of Rs. 14,750/- from
her bank on February 1 this year itself. A fridge was purchased from her debit card
in Kochi, Kerala.
Impostors cloning debit cards are now up with a new trick to conduct the fraud transactions in other provinces to thwart detection. According to the Lucknow cyber cell officials, till last year, Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar were the main hubs for these cloning activities; the muggers sitting over there were the ones involved in such fraud bustles. But, now the crime has extended to southern states as well. There are almost more than 25 other cases of card cloning incidents registered in Lucknow itself. However, the police have not succeeded to solve the cases.
Fraud transactions in one’s credit or debit card can be done through of e-mail phishing or spoofing as well. So, what should you do in this regard? The moment you are aware of the fact that a wary transaction has been conducted on your debit/credit card, letting the card issuer know about it would be the wisest act on your part. You can also file a formal complaint with the bank and contact the customer care asking them to block the card instantly. Now in case, the fraud is related to net banking and you have to go for a complaint anyways, you need to make sure that you have your ID proof and address proof (as shown in the bank records) with you. Additionally, there are also a number of fake apps gliding over the cyber world. So, in case of a fraud done through an app, don’t forget to take f the screenshot of the spiteful app and the location it was downloaded from.