Pune: A 24-year-old girl, who is an engineer by profession, was recently cheated to the tune of Rs 69,998 after her bank details was phished by a fraudster who transfered the amount from her account to a mobile wallet.
The girl was planning to buy a moblie phone from an e-commerce platform when she received a phone call from the fraudster who posed as a staffer from the customer care department of the e-commerce platform. As the girl was interested in buying the mobile phone, the fraudster took her into confidence and phished her banking details. The girl has lodged a case with Wakad police station.
In another case in October, 2018, a man was cheated to the tune of Rs 99,999. The man approached Shivajinagar police and lodged a case of cheating. The police said the money was transferred to different mobile wallets.
Such cases continue to reflect the use of mobile wallets by fraudsters. It has been a year since the RBI directed the mobile wallet companies to complete the ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) norms of users so those misusing such e-wallets can be tracked.
Following the directions, some mobile wallets started with mandatory KYC norms, but such cases continue to crop up
.
Senior Police Inspector Radhika Phadke of Cyber Crime Police Station of the city police said, “Although KYC norms have been made mandatory for some mobile wallets, it will take time for such crimes to drop. We need to track the number of such cases before and after introduction of KYC by mobile wallets. However, introduction of KYC will certainly deter fraudsters.”
Highlighting the need of KYC, she said, “Earlier anybody would use a popular brand name and open an account in that name. This would help the fraudster to cheat people as the victims would think it is a reliable one.”
Phadke said fraudsters are using mobile wallets as they can be operated easily and round the clock.
“Mobile wallets are used by small and large business units which helps fraudsters to disperse with the money,” added the senior inspector.
However, cyber experts feel people need to outsmart fraudsters and only making ‘Know Your Customer’ mandatory will not help.
Cyber expert Anil Raj of Cybervault Security Solutions Limited said mobile wallets have indeed pulled up their socks and are getting the KYC done along with connecting the mobile wallets with the Aadhaar data.
“The process might help reduce such frauds but it cannot be stopped. Moreover, there can be other vulnerabilities in the online payment system of mobile wallets, which can be explored by a fraudster before committing a crime,” added Raj.
