Debit card attacks made headlines again as a veteran virologist fall prey to one losing a sum of Rs 1,08,988 from his Citibank account. It was a week ago, the victim who was tricked over a call sought cybercrime police to file a complaint and an investigation was instigated, it was done as part of the bank’s probe into the cheating.
Referenced from the police statements, the fraudster identified himself as a staffer with the associated Citibank by the name of Rajkumar Verma. He proceeded to say, “Your debit card attacked by a virus,” and had the Banglore based doctor fooled and consequently convinced after providing some personal details of the mildly popular octogenarian in the city. In the sphere of pathology, the doctor has an international participation in various top medical forums.
Reportedly, the attacker alarmed the doctor by saying that his bank card was vulnerable and could be attacked by a virus and hence needs urgent fixing in order to ensure safety against fraudsters.
Falling for the trap, an alarmed doctor let his guard down and gave away his card details along with the OTPs that followed and the vishing scam got successfully executed as attacker made multiple transactions from his Citibank account.
The realization of the fraud hit the doctor a bit too late to avoid. By the time he fully discerned the fact that he has been subjected to a fraud, the money was gone.
Commenting on the matter, Na. Vijayashankar, a cyber-security consultant said, “Banks should be held completely responsible in such cases,” he implied that the systems and mechanisms used by the banks to manage digital technology are insecure. He also said, “One needs to question how a fraudster obtained confidential details of the customer, which the fraudster used to target him.”
According to him, mainly it's the victim who is blamed and labeled ignorant and banks shy away from taking the responsibilities and owning up to security flaws.
