Cyber ​​frauds have seeped massively into society and it warrants attention. It will just take seconds for anyone to lose lakhs from their account for some petty errors they commit with their mobile phone. It is to curtail such frauds that cyber police often warn the public to not share OTP under any circumstances.

Even banks have repeatedly alerted customers to not share OTP or any other details for fear of fraud committed in the guise of banks. Many banks have also asked customers to stay away from responding to any of these scam messages. It seems like all these warnings fell on deaf ears as the cases of cyber fraud are only showing a steep rise with every passing day. Shockingly, even highly educated sections in society fall for this fraud, and end up losing a massive amount from their account.

And to complete the loop, the police officials who were hitherto engaged in educating people to not fall for fraud have now gone silent. But why?

The Accounts Officer at Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner's Office lost Rs 25,000 from his official account after he unknowingly shared the OTP. But there is a possibility to get the money back as the cybercrime police intervened and blocked the withdrawal. The officer received a fake message on his official mobile phone asking him to update the KYC or else lose his account. The messages come under the guise of the bank.

Without giving any second thought, the officer entered his details in the link provided and forwarded the OTP number. Just moments after he shared the OTP, a message reached his phone informing that Rs 25,000 had been debited from his account.

The officer immediately informed the control room number 1930. The cybercrime police immediately intervened and found that the scam was done by a North Indian gang and the money was transferred to their account. The cyber police acted timely and worked well to impede the money transfer. But now, just give a thought about the same instance with a different complainant, let him be a common man. The same cyber officers would work in a desultory fashion and will give pessimistic undertones, to bruise the already shattered complainant.

These fraudsters have mastered all the knacks of this deceptive trade such that they have garnered the cojones even to dupe police officials in the commissioner’s office. People who are lenient on online transactions should take cues from these frauds and be double cautious to prevent such travesty.