'One Time Password' frauds haunt city

Visakhapatnam: A sum of Rs 50,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from the net-banking account of a state-government employee in May this year.
His mistake was that he revealed the One Time Password (OTP) he received on his registered mobile number when requested by a telephone caller pretending to be the bank's customer care official.
The complainant, who doesn't want to be quoted, is a resident of Dwarakanagar who approached the police after the nationalised bank failed to act on his complaint.
The case was referred to the cyber crime cell at the police commissionerate. Cyber crime cell officials revealed that nearly 80 such fraud cases of money being withdrawn by taking the OTP were reported since January this year till date.
Nearly Rs 5 lakh has been fraudulently transacted. Nearly 125 cases were reported last year in the cyber crime cell in the city. Most of the cases were reported from MVP Colony, Dwarakanagar, Kurmannapalem, Steel Plant, Gajuwaka, Airport, Maddilapalem and Seethammadhara. Most of the victims held accounts in State Bank of India, ICICI, Axis Bank and Andhra Bank.
Cyber crime cell circle inspector K Satyanarayana Rao said preliminary investigations of such cases revealed that most of the telephone calls originated from Jharkhand and New Delhi.
"We have resolved six cases and teams have been sent to Jharkhand and New Delhi to track the culprits. The remaining cases are under investigation. Bank customers should be more aware about safety tips while using debit and credit cards. Most of the victims are middle-aged and government employees who are less aware about card safety," Satyanarayana Rao told TOI.
Explaining the modus operandi of the fraudsters, Satyanarayana Rao said they got details of the customer's account through various sources including the bank staff itself. The transaction is conducted outside the city and they try to get the OTP through a phone call. They convert the money to online money wallets like Paytm, MobiKwik, Oxigen Wallet and PayUMoney, Rao said.
The inspector further added that the department printed nearly 4,000 pamphlets and stickers on safety tips for online transactions and pasted them at public places and commercial establishments.
When contacted, Andhra Bank deputy general manager for Visakhapatnam zone, B Vijayalakshmi said OTP is a secure code used to authorise each transaction. The OTP will be used for net-banking transactions. "We take two factor authentication security measures to overcome internet banking frauds. An online authentication code (OAC) will also be used apart from the OTP in their bank. Updatation of registered mobile numbers by the customers will also help protecting the privacy and checking frauds," Vijayalakshmi added.