In a shocking OTP bypass scam, multiple incidents emerged where hackers stole victims’ funds through online banking without them even realizing it. Know about this scary online banking scam.
Cybercriminals are getting smarter by the minute and coming up with scary tactics to steal money from innocent people. They may even use technology that allows online scams to bypass OTP. Just a few months ago, an entrepreneur lost nearly Rs. 1 Crore after his smartphone was hacked without his knowledge. But now, it seems that hackers are attacking individuals’ online banking accounts directly. In a terrifying new online scam, police have found unknown beneficiaries added to the net bank accounts of victims who mysteriously lost large sums of money – all to no avail. get OTP to approve the transaction. It is extremely important that you know how this new crime is being carried out and that you protect yourself from it.
Hackers use scary tactics to steal money online bank
According to one report by The Times India, a terrifying new cybercriminal has come to light in Gujarat. Some of the victims have complained that their hard earned money was stolen from their bank accounts without their knowledge of the transaction because they didn’t even receive the OTP from the bank. Usually, when the money is transferred online banking (except when using an online wallet or UPI), the user will receive an OTP (one-time password) text message to confirm the transaction. But this never happened in this case. And it got scarier.
Reports show that in all cases, net banking accounts with unidentified beneficiaries added without their knowledge. It’s weird that the user has to get the OTP to accept the payee. But in this case, they were only added without the permission of the bank account holder.
“According to the complaint, an unknown account was added as a beneficiary in the victim’s online banking account. Hardik Makadia, assistant police commissioner (cybercrime) told TOI.
Authorities also revealed that shortly after adding unspecified beneficiaries, the victims lost thousands of dollars. Police have registered three such cases, which are currently under investigation.
Makadia also revealed that it has written to banks to know if there are technical vulnerabilities that hackers could use to circumvent the beneficiary approval process.
This is really a scary crime as the criminal never even interacts with the victim. The criminal neither hacked the smartphone nor attempted to steal financial information such as bank account passwords.
However, there are things you can do to protect yourself from such crimes.
How to protect your bank account from hackers
- If you have netbanking enabled, be sure to always check the list of beneficiaries. If you find an unknown beneficiary, remove them and contact the bank or the police promptly.
- Always make it a habit to remove beneficiaries that you don’t use for regular transactions.
- Never do online banking on a public computer or internet cafe. Never use public Wi-Fi. They are not secure and your password and account details can be stolen.
- Make sure to change your password every 14 days. Always use a random alphanumeric password with a few special characters.
- Don’t write down the password anywhere and try to remember it instead.
