Hi Friends,
In this post, I want to share with you all an interesting conversation, I had with a fellow from Jamtara. For people, who do not know, Jamtara is a city in Indian state of Jharkhand and has a dubious distinction of being nick named as the Cybercrime capital of India.
This conversation took place on 25th June. It was a Saturday and time was around 10:00 am. I was enjoying my usual cuppa tea, when there was a ping on my phone. It was a genuine SMS from my Card service provider with an OTP.
By the time, I was going through the message, my phone rang. I am attempting to reproduce below, the conversation I had with the caller:
Caller: Good morning Sir, I am calling from xxxx bank and want to share an important information with you. RBI has come out with latest guidelines on digital transactions and as per that your card will be charged with INR 390. Would you like this charge to be levied or use the option to reverse this mandate?
Me : That is not at all fair. Why I should pay this charge? What are bank’s guidelines on this matter?
Caller : Sir, it is your choice, If you so desire, we can reverse the mandate.
Me : Thank you for this option. Please go ahead and reverse this.
Caller : Sure Sir. Will do that right away. Please share your card expiry date and the OTP which you would have just received on phone.
Me : ( Not interested anymore to carry on with the charade) OK Bhai. Now you tell me that whether I am the first one for the day or you have managed to defraud some people already
Caller : (without a pause or any sign of guilt) Sir, morning has just started and you are my first caller. I was hoping to have a good start to the day.
Me : Where are you calling from ? Jamtara or somewhere else.
Caller : Sir, that does not make any difference.
Me : Yaar, why don’t you and your friends try to get some meaningful jobs. Please approach your elected representatives and ask for job opportunities.
Caller : He started to utter vile curses for the political parties and said that there are no jobs. The schools too were worst and there has been no meaningful education accessible to them.
Me : I suggested to go for Mudra loans, Skill India etc
Caller : No one will give us anything . Are you willing to give me a job?
Me : Send me your CV. I will see what I can do. (He just laughed in response)
Me : OK. At least do not defraud common people. Having a card, does not imply that they are loaded. These are difficult times. Try to entice politicians and people who can afford to lose some money. Offer them a nice gift like Lamborghini etc and they will fall for your scam.
Caller : Listen, we never target poor people and from card data base, we select only worthy candidates ( I felt proud with this statement and for being included in the worthy candidate list)
Me : At least from now, whenever there is next election, ask the politicians for job opportunities and do not fall for communal politics and typical Hindu Muslim narrative
Caller : What is your religion ? Hindu or Muslim
Me : I am an Indian
Caller : Wait, let me check. (after a pause). You are a Hindu
Me : I am an Indian bhai.
By then, I had enough and asked him to stop this conversation and terminated the call. However, I know very well that these attempts will not stop. It is also obvious that educated youngsters have taken to these con games. Reason could be genuine unemployment or even thrill or lure of easy money. I do wish and pray, that may these youngsters find their genuine calling and settle down with good work options.
I request you all, to please be very cautious so as not to fall for these scams. Never ever share your card details with anyone over phone or in person. Please do remember, that your genuine bank service will never seek your card details at any time.
Question does arise that why our data and personal details are so unsafe? How come these people can access our card details, send OTP and call our registered numbers with ease? What is the responsibility of institutions who we trust to safeguard our details?
Just Thinking!!