A cocktail of ignorance and greediness is what you need to become a telephonic fraud victim. I saved myself from being one a few days back. What follows in this blog post is the short transcript of the fraudulent call and what is the solution to prevent people from being telephonic fraud victims.
The trap formation
I received a call from a mobile Number saying it was from Citibank. They wanted to credit cash in my account for the reward points that have expired on my card. I redeem my reward points on time and so this was the first trigger in mind to be careful on this call. Still, to understand the modus operandi of the caller, I continued with the call.
I said I never let my rewards point expire, I redeem there as soon as they are available for redemption. But the lady on the other end was smart. She said that we know you redeem your fuel points but this is about the reward points on the other spends that you make. This was a lie. I have been using the card for more than 5 years and I know how it works. But it was getting interesting so I played the nerd. Let's see what these guys say to fool people.
Breach of Security Level 1
She wanted to go ahead with verification by asking me the last 8 digits of the card. I said, generally, for verification, you guys ask only the last 4 digits. She agreed to this and said, I have your entire card number and if you give me last 8 digits, it will not make any difference. I went ahead and gave my number. This was the breach of Security level 1 that one should never reveal the card number.
Breach of Security Level 2
Happy that I gave her my card number, she went ahead and initiated a transaction. She told me that I will receive an SMS with a code. This SMS confirms that I have received the money. I did receive the SMS in few seconds. But instead of saying "Money is credited" the SMS read " transaction initiated". I enquired about this and she said it’s the standard text in the SMS and nothing to worry about. My suspicion grew stronger. Though this was the breach of Security level 2, I still had one more security level before I am duped. So I gave the code received in the SMS.
Never breach the Security Level 3
The only thing that stopped her from using my card was the CVV number. This is the last security measure. If this is broken, nothing stops her from using my card. And this is how she tried to trap me and get the CVV number. She said, there is one last step of verification. She said, there is a 7 digit number on the back of my card and for verification purpose, I have to give her the last 3 digits. I couldn’t take any more risk and so I disconnected the call. I have not yet received the call again. Nor has there been any transaction on my card.
I shared this incident with my friend and colleagues. They said this has happened to their friends and families. Some of them were victims of such calls.
TrueCaller could be the answer
This incident forced me to think if any mobile app can protect people from such calls. The app can help in creating awareness about the callers with fraudulent motives. And TrueCaller flashed in my mind.
TrueCaller could roll out a Corporate service. The Businesses enrolled for service gets their number tagged as verified. The Logo and the name of the business should be shown as caller identity. No other number should be allowed to use the name of the business. If anybody registers a number with the same name, the number should be reported for verification.
What do you think about this service? Will it be useful? Is this service available in TrueCaller currently? Do share your comments...
What do you think about this service? Will it be useful? Is this service available in TrueCaller currently? Do share your comments...
