JOIN USA former Army general saved himself from being duped into losing Rs 47.5 lakh when he received a fraudulent message to update his KYC.
On advice from the cybercrime police, Yelahanka, Major General (Retd) N K Manchanda froze his internet banking service and averted losing the money.
Manchanda wrote a letter to Karnataka DG&IGP Praveen Sood thanking the police force and the cybercrime unit for their timely intervention. The officers told DH that asking people to update their KYC details before the last date is the new method cybercriminals are adopting to defraud victims.
“People receive a message on their phones which say that unless they update their KYC details by calling a number that is mentioned in the message, their sim cards and/or bank accounts will get blocked. When people call these numbers, they are either asked for an OTP or sent a link to click on. If either of these actions are performed, their account will get hacked,” an official explained.
Manchanda was earlier entangled in a similar scam and had acted with awareness in this instance.
“I went to my bank and resolved the issue and Rs 47.5 lakh was restored to my account and a great tragedy was averted,” his letter read.
Sub-inspector (cybercrime) Deepak, who handled the case, urged the public to ignore messages asking for KYC details, an OTP or other personal information.