A man recently recounted on Reddit how he nearly fell victim to a credit card scam involving a payment of Rs 44,000 on September 7. In his post, he described receiving a call from someone pretending to be from the HDFC Credit Card Department, offering him a lifetime free card. Interested, he agreed, and the caller requested an OTP to log in to mycard.hdfc.com. Without verifying the request, he provided the OTP.
The caller then confirmed his address and the last four digits of his card, gaining his trust. They asked for his card details, including the CVV and card number, which he provided. The call ended with the promise that a senior executive would follow up.
A few hours later, the man received another call requesting an OTP, this time related to PhonePe and warning of a potential scam involving a transaction of Rs 44,000. The message read: “OTP is 682241 for txn of Rs 44,020.00 at PHONEPE PRI on HDFC Bank card ending 5401. Valid till 01:29. Do not share OTP for security reasons.”
While the first OTP was used to build trust, the second was intended to authorize a fraudulent transaction.
A survey by LocalCircles has revealed that 47 percent of Indians have experienced financial fraud in the past three years. The study, which surveyed 23,000 people across 302 districts, found that UPI and credit card fraud are the most prevalent forms of financial fraud.
“Honestly, it’s hard to tell from just a phone call,” Shobhit Goyal, Founder and CEO of BeFisc, tells Business Standard. “The credit card application process usually takes place on the bank’s official website or app, so customers should always verify if the process described by the caller aligns with that.”
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He recommends customers check the legitimacy of any website using tools like Google’s Safe Browsing Transparency Report.
Paritosh Desai, Chief Product Officer at IDfy, added, “Scammers often create a sense of urgency and use pressure tactics. They might ask you to call back on a specific number. They also make offers that sound too good to be true, like rewards or money in exchange for a transaction.”
He added that scammers often impersonate figures of authority, like bank managers or government officials, to gain trust. “They even mimic the robotic voices used by banks, making the call seem more legitimate,” Agrawal says.
“The frequency of telemarketing calls and OTPs can make it difficult to spot fraudulent ones. “Even tech-savvy individuals can fall for these scams because we’re so used to the process that we sometimes miss the red flags,” Desai added.
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