The goal of these fake SMS is to make the customer feel panicked.
Due to the growth of digital banking, crooks are preying on vulnerable victims to steal their hard-earned money. Customers of major banks like HDFC and SBI have been subjected to a wave of fraudulent messages trying to steal their money. Although these frauds have been reported for the past few months, they have recently become more frequent. Scammers use different tactics to dupe innocent people and this time they have devised another one. These fraudsters ask people to update their account information or PAN card information by sending them bogus links that appear to be from the banks themselves.
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These messages may threaten to “block” the customer’s account if they don’t change or update their information. The goal of these messages is to make the customer feel panicked. Once panicked, the person would immediately share their information with the fraudster. Once the customers share this information, fraudsters can quickly access the customers’ bank accounts and take their money.
Because people with bank accounts are more vulnerable, Indian banks often share awareness messages. Recently, HDFC bank tweeted, “Protect yourself from fraudsters! Always check that messages from HDFC Bank come from the official ID HDFCBK/HDFCBN & links start with http://hdfcbk.io. Do not click on links or respond to unknown numbers requesting PAN/KYC updates or other banking info.”
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These scammers are employing similar tactics for the State Bank of India customers as well. To protect the customers, SBI shared a message from a fraudster on its Twitter account, “Dear Customer, your SBI YONO Account is Closed Today Contact now And Update your PAN NUMBER in the following link.” Sometimes to make the message real, the name of the customer holder is also typed in the message.
It might appear that these messages are coming from the bank directly at first glimpse. However, a more in-depth look at it makes it obvious that the message is being sent by someone, who is trying to trick the customer into giving their credentials and personal information.
If the scamsters are successful in getting this information, they will use it to defraud the victim of their money. Customers of HDFC Bank and SBI have both received alerts about fraudsters. Customers have been urged to exercise caution and not divulge any confidential information.
