Crooks steal money from bank account ‘without an OTP’: Report

The sophistication of cybercriminals is increasing by the minute, and they are developing terrifying methods for robbing money from helpless individuals. They have the technological capability to even enable internet frauds that circumvent OTP. Recently, a businessman who had no idea that his smartphone had been hacked suffered a loss of over Rs. 1 Crore. However, it appears that hackers are now specifically targeting people’s online bank accounts.

In a disturbing new online fraud, victims who inexplicably lost substantial quantities of money have had unidentified beneficiaries added to their net banking accounts without ever obtaining an OTP to authorise the transaction, according to authorities. Knowing how this new crime is being committed and understanding its implications are of the utmost importance.

Hackers use a spooky technique;
The Times of India reports that a terrifying new cybercrime has been discovered in Gujarat. Several victims have reported that their hard-earned money was taken from bank accounts without them ever learning about the transaction because they never even received an OTP from the bank. Users often get an OTP (one time password) text message to confirm a financial transaction while using online banking, with the exception of when utilising an online wallet or UPI. However, in this case, it never did. It only gets scarier.

Reports suggest that in all the cases, the net banking account had unknown beneficiaries added, without them being aware of it. Police have registered three such cases, which are now under investigation. This is indeed a terrifying crime since the criminal never even interacts with the victim. There are things that you can do in order to protect yourself from such crimes.

How to protect your bank account

• Check the beneficiaries list often if you have netbanking enabled. If you ever discover an unidentified beneficiary, delete them and call the bank or police right away.
• Always make it a habit to delete any beneficiaries that you don’t use frequently.
• Never use a cyber café or public computer to do online banking. Never utilise free public WiFi either. These are insecure, and your password and account information are vulnerable to theft.
• Every 14 days, be sure to update your password. Always combine an alphanumeric password with a few unusual characters to make it unpredictable.
• Try to memorise the password rather than writing it down somewhere.