Warning By Govt For All Indians: OTPs Can Be Stolen During Calls, Never Merge Calls With Strangers!

The government has asked the citizens to strictly keep away from merging calls while talking on phone with any unknown person cyber criminals as it may lead to the abuse and misuse of OTP.

Cybercriminals these days are employing newer and newer ways to defraud people. In the pandemic period, the cyber fraud cases have increased. 

The OTP Fraud 

A warning has been issued by the India’s Ministry of Home Affairs relating to the OTP Fraud. Cyber Dost, which is a Twitter handle of the Ministry of Home Affairs that shares information on cyber security, has warned people that OTP can also be stolen by call.

In its tweet, Cyber Dost asked the citizens to never merge any other call while talking to an unknown person on the phone. As soon as the call is merged, the fraudster can know your account by knowing the OTP. Be aware, be alert. If you are a victim of fraud, you can register your complaint on cybercrime.gov.in.

Instructions by the Government

Instructions are given by the bank and the government to safeguard the citizens from the online frauds. However, fraudsters cheat people in new ways and people easily become victims of fraud.

However, prudence and awareness can help prevent such online fraud cases.

OTP or the one-time-password usually comes on our phone while we are making any payment related to the bank. Only after entering the OTP is the transaction complete. 

There are people who share their OTP number through phone and message also. Do not share such OTP even by mistake, it can lead to fraud with you.

Also, using the free or public WiFi can make people susceptible to such attacks.

There is free WiFi facility in many such places including metro, railway station, park. Often people do online transactions through public WiFi in order to save internet and free WiFi. 

Hence, under such circumstances, the citizens are asked to use their own networks to make the payments. If one resorts to public WiFi, then their information related to the bank goes to them. So keep in mind that, never do your transactions on public WiFi.