CHENNAI: DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran has been targeted by cybercriminals.
An amount of Rs 99,999 has been stolen from Maran's personal savings account of the former Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology.
A complaint was lodged in this regard with the Cyber Crime Wing of the Greater Chennai City Police.
Maran took to platform X to confirm the theft.
“On Sunday, ₹99,999 was stolen from my @AxisBank personal savings account through a net banking transfer via @IDFCFIRSTBank-@BillDesk, bypassing all normal safety protocols. An OTP, the standard protocol for such transactions, was neither generated nor received by my linked mobile number. Instead, a call was made to the account’s joint holder - my wife’s number and the fraudsters had the gall to ask if the transaction had taken place. They pretended to be from the bank but had @cbic_india on their display picture. This confirmed my suspicions and I immediately proceeded to block all activities on my account,” Maran said.
"What puzzles me is how they accessed personal information and breached security protocols with such ease. This wasn't a phishing attack nor were any sensitive details divulged. @AxisBank was clueless as to how the attack had happened nor could they give any solid explanation for why the OTP was not required from my number for the transaction to take place," he further said.
"If this can happen to someone who is aware of tech and cautious with private data, what about first-time digital users and senior citizens? Is anyone's data safe?" he queried.