All You Need To Know About Online Cyber Frauds And How to Protect Your Credit Score
The last 2 years of covid have wreaked havoc throughout the world. The lockdowns and restrictions have made the world come to a standstill. And besides the mental and physical health going for a toss, even our finances have not been spared.
And amidst all this, online cyber frauds and scams have also been a cause of great worry in the virtual world, with tons of cyber criminals and scamsters waiting for your carelessness and leaving no stone unturned to get their hands on your hard-earned money, whether it’s the UPI (Unified Payment Interface), credit card, debit card or net banking. They are eyeing you everywhere.
That was present earlier too, but it’s more so in the ongoing pandemic induced lockdown, which has resulted in a sizeable chunk of individuals working from home amid the imposed restrictions, thereby putting into limelight the importance of digital space for handling office work via technology, making payments, making investments, taking insurance, ordering groceries etc.
Hence, as a result of increased reliance on digital modes for almost all monetary tasks, the rise in online cyber frauds due to increased transactions reinstates the fact that much of the onus on protection from fraudulent attempts and scams lies upon the user’s shoulders. So, to prevent falling prey to these frauds and protecting damage to your ICICI cibil score, it’s crucial to stay informed and gain knowledge regarding numerous types of online frauds that are taking place, to help you keep a tab on your financial health and also side by side forget to keep a monthly reminder in your calendar to check my cibil score.
Phishing
One of the most widely-used tactics by cyber criminals is in the form of phishing, wherein the target user is tricked into either handing over or entering their sensitive personal information such as bank account number, passwords, debit and/or credit card information etc. By disguising themselves as trustworthy entities like government officers, bank employees etc., fraudsters send unauthorized payment links via SMS or email.
Avoid falling prey to such phishing attempts by not clicking any random or unfamiliar link or those from unknown sources, which seem susceptible and raise doubts. Once the fraudster gains your personal information via the fake URL, it won’t take much time to steal your money and land you into a laid trap in the form of a cybercrime, which can even hurt your credit score if your credit card or loans are tampered with.
Moreover, as many phishing attempts involve users falling prey to fake call centres for customer care, it’s always prudent to register a complaint on the dedicated platform/portal of the organization instead of doing random searches online. And remember to check my cibil score by developing a habit to do so every month, as even that helps as a signal of something wrong with your finances, like unknown transactions.
Remote screen mirroring tool
Since the past couple of years, work-from-home has become a new norm for many employers, resulting in many employees downloading remote screen mirroring tools in order to connect their laptop or mobile phone to larger displays like smart TVs for more convenience.
However, as not all apps available are authentic for monitoring transactions and for checking your ICICI cibil score, especially those which are unverified, downloading them and giving required permissions to them can take sensitive information from your phone and gain control over your device in order to procure as much money as possible. Therefore, it’s important to only download authentic and verified apps to prevent losing your precious money. Also, regularly complete the task of checking my cibil score in order to keep a tab on your credit repayment history and know whether a fraudulent credit activity or error is present or not, which may harm your score and financial health overall as well.
Deceptive social media handles
The popularity of various social media platforms in India has enabled fraudsters to find another way to trick users by making fake social media handles relating to digital payment apps or names similar to any bank or government organization. The aim behind the creation of such fake handles is to trick you into believing that they are the authentic and original ones, on the pretext of helping you, thereby tricking you into revealing your personal details, including Aadhaar, PAN number, bank account details, ICICI cibil score, etc. Once they get inputs from the target user regarding all the required information for fraud to take place, the user ends up losing money in no time.
Scams using your OTP, UPI PIN
Another way of practising fraud and damaging your ICICI cibil score by hackers is sending the notification stating “request money” links to the target customer. Once the link is clicked, and the customer authorizes the transaction on the pretext of ‘receiving money, the opposite happens, i.e. the amount gets debited from their account.
As far as OTP or UPI PIN related frauds are concerned, when the customer makes a transaction through the digital payment app, OTP authentication is required through SMS sent on registered mobile number with the bank or by putting UPI PIN, the fraudsters convince the target user to share OTP or UPI PIN over the phone. Once it is shared, they are able to steal the money from the target customer’s account.
Hence, it’s advisable to never share confidential details such as your UPI PIN, OTP, etc., with anyone, irrespective of whoever they claim to be. Also, remember that banks never call you to ask for these details. Cyber fraudsters can even call you to say that we can help you check my cibil score and ask for your PAN number and then OTP for the same, hence taking away a lot of precious information about your financial life! Hence, never ever disclose any information to anyone on call, especially if you think it is fishy and too much of your detailed personal and financial information is being asked for. Remember, you have to be your own saviour first!
