Don't be a victim of fraud. Follow these steps

If you are getting unsolicited loan offers on your phone, then beware. That could be fraud offer. According to a report of the Reserve Bank, the largest chunk of money siphoned off due to frauds belong to loan-related frauds. The Reserve Bank’s Annual Report 2022-23 says there were a total of 9,097 frauds that took place in the financial year 2021-22. This number increased to 13,530 in 2022-23. This means, the number of frauds increased by about 48 percent

In the financial year 2021-22, frauds worth  59,819 crore rupees had taken place. This amount fell to 30,252 crore rupees in 2022-23. This shows, more frauds took place but involved lower amounts. Out of the total amount of money siphoned off in instances of frauds, the share of loan related frauds was the highest.

Modus operandi
So, let’s us see how frauds take place? According to the data of the Reserve Bank of India, out of  30,252 crore rupees,  about 95% or Rs 28,792 cr were loan-related fraud.

Now understand how frauds happened? Lot of frauds happened through digital payment i.e. online transactions. Thefts happened through card payments. Users were asked for OTP. People also fell victim to  UPI related frauds.

Which bank has more fraud data, private or government? According to the RBI report, more frauds happened in private banks.

In 2022-23, government banks suffered 3,405 frauds, while 8,932 cases came up in private banks. However, in terms of value , government banks were ahead than private counterparts. There were frauds of 21,125 crore rupees in government banks, while, in private banks it 8,727 crore rupees.

RBI action
The Reserve Bank has said that it will take more stringent steps to prevent such frauds. Rohit Jain, Executive Director of RBI has instructed banks to take steps to strengthen  security structure and increase expenditure towards it. RBI has made rules on everything from licensing to modus operandi of banks and non-banking lenders. This will bring more transparency into their process. This year’s budget has allocated 625 crore rupees to improve the cyber security infrastructure in the country.

The Reserve Bank is continuously taking action against unregulated apps. To avoid fraud, RBI’s website also has a list of registered banks and non-banking financial companies i.e. NBFCs. This will help people avoid falling pray to miscreants.

RBI guidelines
The Reserve Bank has also recently issued a draft of ‘Master Directions on Cyber Resilience and Digital Payment Security Controls for Payment System Operators’. Its purpose is to provide comprehensive guidelines and remedies for strengthening the cyber security framework in the digital payment ecosystem.

You could be the next person falling prey to fraud. So beware. Never share your banking details such as account number, debit/credit card numbers and the CVV and OTP. Keep  password for card transactions secret. Do not click on links sent by unknown sources for payment. Be cautious of easily available online loan offers. Go directly to the bank for a loan, if you are taking a loan from loan apps then check the credibility of that app.

Check whether it is registered with the Reserve Bank or not. If you take care of these things, you will be able to protect your money properly.