These are the times when cyber frauds are on the rise. As online transactions have become more prominent, online scams became more prevalent. OTP number is the key to transferring money over phones. It has been repeatedly instructed by banks, police and private companies dealing with it that it should not be handed over to strangers under any circumstances. But consumers are not listening enough which leads to such scams being repeated. The latest news in this series is that a flat owner who advertised a flat for rent in Kochi was duped. The ad was placed on a real estate website. Immediately a call came from a person introducing himself as a CRPF officer from Rajasthan. Such people never negotiate over the rent. The flat owner might have given the information requested by him and finally the OTP number. At last, he lost about one lakh rupees from his account over three instances.

Such online scams are widely practiced in the name of soldiers. Already about 200 such complaints have been placed. Mostly such crimes have taken place in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kollam and Kozhikode. Most of the scams have been done using rental house advertisements. After confirming the rent and advance, a Google payment link will be sent by the fraudster. The person will then ask the homeowner to type the advance amount after clicking on it. The typed amount will be lost from the account of house owner. Public advisories are often issued informing people to never share their Aadhaar and account details with strangers, but most don't give it much value which in turn paves a comfortable path for such scammers. The concerned should be prepared to give more awareness and publicity in this regard.

When dealing with strangers, ask to see them in person first. Fraudsters will give many excuses to avoid such confrontations. It is very difficult to detect fraudsters like this. So the bank will refund the money first but if the case is not resolved within a time frame then the bank will withdraw the money from our account itself. So those who use phone payment gateways need to be extra careful. Only then can cyber fraud be prevented.