Mobile number change fraud: Here's how to safeguard yourself from online fraud

There is a surge in mobile number change scams, particularly targeting senior citizens in India.

Ubiquitous smartphones have become an indispensable extension of our lives. We can't imagine stepping out without it. Because it offers several conveniences such as the option to instantly order food, hail a cab, or do a cashless transaction in a blink of a second, and with generative Artificial Intelligence, we can create our digital greeting cards to share with friends and family.

However, if people are not careful enough, they have to pay dearly. There is a surge in mobile number change scams, particularly targeting senior citizens.

Here's how they trap the victims:

First, they send SMS or call the victim to make faster processing of the Pension Payment Order (PPO) or else threaten to stop the release of the pension.

Fearing the stoppage of their pension, most elderly people give away their financial details, such as account numbers, and even follow their orders to install an app sent through SMS.

However, these apps are compromised with malware, and they steal all the personal details and, in the worst case, activate call/message forwarding to their phones. They will be able change the primary phone number linked to the bank account to their number and clean the bank account.

The hard-earned money accumulated over decades of work done senior citizen goes directly to the cyber rogues, and from there, it will be a difficult task for the police agency to track the culprit. Most threat actors pay some money to illiterate villagers to get Aadhaar numbers to create mule accounts. Once the crime is done, they clean the account and vanish.

All citizens are advised to be careful when they receive any calls or messages from a bank or a government official. They never ask for personal details or ask them to install any app on the phone.

Tips on how to safeguard yourself from the mobile number change scam:

1) Never click on URLs sent in messages or emails from unknown people. Even if it is sent by a known person, be very cautious

2) Never share personal information or any OTP with strangers, even if they claim to be from an e-commerce app executive or bank official or even from the Income Tax department.

3) Always download official bank or mobile wallet apps from Google Play and Apple App Store only

4) If you receive any calls from an executive representing a bank or Income Tax, or the Police and ask for personal details, just disconnect it

5) Install an anti-virus app from prominent publishers such as McAfee, Kaspersky and others to secure your phone from malware and also potential scams in emails or messages

If god forbid, you or anybody you know falls prey to the cyber fraud like the mobile number change scam or digital arrest, immediately call the national toll-free cyber crime unit number 1930. If you inform the online transaction details to the police within one hour after the incident, there is a high chance of recovering the lost money.

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