About a week ago, a retired HSL employee received a call on his mobile. The caller identified himself as an employee from his bank, and informed that his debit card would be blocked if it was not updated immediately.
After asking a few basic questions such as name and address, the caller asked the retired employee his debit card PIN and informed that the call was under security protocol.
Convinced that it was an authentic call from his banker, the retired employee revealed the PIN.
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A few minutes after the called ended, he received an official SMS alert from his bank stating that Rs. 63,000 was debited from his account.
This rang the bell, and the retired employee immediately asked his local bank manager to block all further transactions. But, by that time, the damage had been done.
“This is a classic case of ‘Vishing’ or ‘Voice Phishing’,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) S. Varada Raju.
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There is a sudden rise in such cases in the city. In the last 10 days, 17 cases have been registered by the Cyber Crime Cell of the City Police Commissionerate.
There are instances when the victim’s bank accounts have been fished from Rs. 4,000 to over Rs. 60,000.
The police are on the job and investigation is being led by Cyber Crime Cell Inspector K. Satyanarayana Rao. According to Mr. Varada Raju, most of the calls have been traced to Jharkhand and Delhi, and it seems to be the handiwork of an organised gang.
“The calls are made by using fake SIM cards. Once a deal is struck, the SIM card is removed or destroyed and another one is used for the next crime. They are so fast that while talking over the phone money is fished out through Internet banking,” Mr. Satyanarayana told The Hindu .
Mr. Varada Raju cautioned people against divulging their personal details. The thumb rule is that banks never call.
To control crime in city and to facilitate investigation, the city police are gearing up to profile rowdy and history-sheeters, and property offenders.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) T. Ravi Kumar Murthy said every police station had been told to make a detailed profile of each offender under their jurisdiction, and the data would be fed into central computers.
This apart, the police stations have been told to monitor the movement of the history-sheeters under their jurisdiction and instruct them to come to the police station on a regular basis. “The idea is to keep a tab on the anti-social elements. Each police station will be given a target and it will be monitored on a daily basis,” said Mr. Murthy. According to the DCP, the department has to upgrade itself technologically and, at the same time, the force has to get the basics right. “We also have proposals to revamp the Cyber Crime Cell as cyber crime is on the rise,” he said.