BENGALURU: About two months ago, State DG & IGP Om Prakash became a victim to phishing. This high-profile case points at the fact that average persons are even more gullible to such fraud through the Internet.
On a single day (Friday), three Loco Pilots (LPs) attached to the Bengaluru Railway Division lost Rs 45,000 to phishing. All of them revealed information about their ATM cards to anonymous callers, posing as bank representatives.
A total of 30 LPs received calls from 6 am to 4 pm on June 19. All calls were made to the Caller User Group (CUG) numbers within the Railways that can be accessed online, said C Sunish, who represents the All India Loco Running Staff Association.
Here’s an account of how it all occurred. After completing his night duty, L P Muthukrishnan had just reached home and had hit the bed. When his mobile rang at 6.10 am, he was far from alert. When asked by the caller to reveal his 16-digit number and the three digits behind his ATM card, he obliged without any suspicion.
“The Hindi-speaking caller wanted to renew my existing ATM card and told me it had to be done on the spot if I wanted to continue using it. I gave out the required info and within 5 minutes, I got a message stating that a sum of Rs 9,999 had been deducted from my card for online shopping from Delhi.” Muthukrishnan had to rush and withdraw the balance money in his account.
Wagish Shivacharya lost a bigger sum — Rs 24,999. He received a call around 4 pm, again after completion of his duty. “A lady caller, who identified herself as Suman Kumari from Delhi, asked for the details. The person, speaking mostly in Hindi and some English, spelt my name correctly and specified the first 12 digits on my SBI card. So, I thought the call was from the ATM section of the bank.”
His gullibility stretches belief as he was asked to read aloud the One Time Password (OTP) thrice. OTP is sent to one’s registered mobile number by a bank.
“I read it out to the caller and within a minute, I got a message that Rs 9,999 had been withdrawn.” Two subsequent calls and a session of argument later, Shivacharya ended up with the loss of a big chunk of money.
He has been running between police stations and cyber crime station and plans to file an FIR at Magadi police station. Another colleague, Ashutosh Srivastava lost Rs 9,990 in a similar fashion.
‘Be Careful’
Pratap Reddy, now posted as Additional Commissioner of Police, Law and Order (Bengaluru West) and a cyber crime expert stresses that public need to be very careful when someone calls and requests for personal information. “We have been cautioning the public repeatedly and even banks keep sending SMSes asking them not to part with any information.” If the fraud gets committed by those based overseas, it would be a long legal process before the money can be recovered. “The initial digits of any card can be easily accessed if one knows the bank name and area,” Reddy said.
