Those who are aware about the modus operandi of such scamsters tend to blame it on the greed and ignorance of victims. It is time for policy makers to stop blaming people and do some thinking on putting an end to these scams
The deluge of e-scams that are ensnaring Indians everyday, suggests that we have become a soft target for such fraudsters. While those who are aware of the modus operandi of such scamsters tend to blame it on the greed and ignorance of victims, it is probably time for policy makers to stop blaming people and do some thinking.
Not a day passes without a new variation of fraudulent e-mails in the name of RBI governor Raghuram Rajan. The latest is to offer NEFT transfer of funds (see image below) - a telephone fraud – or what bankers call ‘vishing’ (like the email fraud which is called phishing). The Mumbai Mirror reported one such case on 20th July in Mumbai, where conmen posing as RBI officials got a couple of youngsters to part with their PIN number claiming to make income tax refunds directly to their accounts!
Does this indicate that Indians have become soft targets for such scamsters? We think so. It has happened because of three factors. On the one hand Indians are savvy enough to adapt to technology very fast, which is normally a positive. On the other hand, extremely poor financial literacy combined with the government’s push to force people to e-reporting and e-filing platforms, without making the time and effort to enhance awareness about the downside, makes fraud in the name of the IT department and the RBI easier to pull off.
That people fall for the scam only indicates that people are not even aware of the role and function of the RBI. It also explains why engineers in leading technology companies fall for these scams.
Adding to this mess is the fact that government organisations are largely inaccessible, because they use e-mail mainly for one-way communication from them to the people and never to respond to queries. The RBI and other organisations also configure their email servers to throw out all emails with attachments over 1MB. This makes it impossible even for activists like Moneylife Foundation to warn them about new emails generated in their name so that corrective action is initiated swiftly. All nationalised banks have a strong technology department to identify phishing emails and block every new attack. Since our emails to the RBI keep bouncing, we have no idea whether the RBI works actively to block new phishing attacks in its name.
What it has done instead is to adopt a couple of easy options. Governor Raghuram Rajan’s email signature carries a warning about phishing attacks. It reads...
The RBI also spends money on warning advertisements. However, in our experience of meeting people over hundreds of seminars and workshops conducted by Moneylife Foundation (a not-for-profit sister entity) is, that financial literacy cannot work with sporadic advertisements from regulators. It has far more impact if financial literacy is imparted in a serious and systematic manner with an explanation of how scams work and their financial consequences.
Making the nation financially literate or even more careful is a herculean task, but a little nudge from the RBI to corporate CEOs would go a long way in ensuring that this becomes a part of the awareness training for all employees.
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This means access to other articles (outside the subscription period) are not included.
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Nigerian scammers openly operating in India while living or visiting India but people want to become rich overnight.
In USA some scammers do a better job by threats etc.Most of these call NRI and mode is simple. This is office of investigation and looking into your past due taxes, traffic tickets, county taxes etc and this to notify you that warrants of your arrest are on the way etc. thus shaking the person or will leave message on your phone to call certain number. They cajole and threat same time and will ask for immediate payment before they can stop such court orders. They even guide you where to go and get the payment card and read the numbers while the party collects the cash immediately and one cannot trace anything due to cyber world. We have read such cases.
I hve had 3 different calls and have just hung up been called back telling me line got cut etc so when will I pay and my reply is let the warrants be served and goodbye as I need not worry. The person on other side represent as attorney etc.
It is greed and fear of being arrested which makes people pay
It is a business of Billions and we are foolish to even listen to such calls.
In India new papers and media should not publish such adds. IGNORE SUCH LETTERS OR PHONE CALLS Be smart and trade will die.