‘Most of the victims of cyber fraud attacks are in the age group of 22-50 years’

What is the general nature of cyber fraud in India?

First and foremost, we are not talking about cyber attacks coming from a foreign country where banking systems have been hacked. What we are talking about here is how an individual customer is duped. So, the methodology used to attack is very simple, and that method is social engineering. It is used to gain access to personal information.

Earlier when people dealt with financial matters, they were a little cautious as they knew they had cash in their pockets and they had to ensure that cash was not swindled. The way the financial infrastructure has developed over the past five years and the pace at which the digital economy has grown, the general public does not know what the safeguards are.

Today, if customers are losing money, it is not because their creditworthiness has been stolen. But what is happening is that they are getting a call or they are getting an online link to click.

When we talk about social engineering, fraudsters are following a script of greed, intimidation or help. During COVID-19, scammers used scripts based on providing the drug remdesivir or oxygen concentrator to deceive people.

Tell us about the findings of your analysis of cyber fraud attacks?

If we look at digital fraud, what comes to our mind? Cheating only happens to those who are not literate. Also, it happens to people who are senior citizens.

The analysis we conducted challenged all these hypotheses. We saw that fraud is happening in broad daylight. Around 65-70% of cyber frauds now happen between 7.00 am to 7.00 pm. This is contrary to the belief that fraud happens at midnight. We also found that 80-85% of the affected customers are in the age group of 22-50 years, which is expected to be tech-savvy. We found that frauds are taking place with people who are salaried class persons, who can be considered educated. We also found that fraud is occurring more with the male population and not the female population.

This means that the problem cannot be generalized. We have seen that most of the frauds are happening with people who are very active with the digital transition. Today it is not as if someone did a digital transaction for the first time and got cheated.

What can people do to avoid fraud?

There are three simple steps people can take to protect themselves from cyber fraud attacks. First of all, do not download anything from a link that is not a reliable source. Second, do not share your OTP, PIN or password and third, do not download the app from any untrusted source.

If people follow these three basic steps, then the problem of cyber fraud attacks will be solved by 90-95%.

Is financial literacy enough to make people aware of fraud, or do we need cyber security literacy in India?

HDFC Bank celebrates Fraud Awareness Week in November. We are conducting 2,000 secure banking workshops to create awareness about digital frauds. As of November 2021, the bank has conducted 137 workshops in schools and colleges covering over 10,000 students to develop safe banking habits early on. This time we thought it should be part of the literacy programme, and awareness should be provided to the children as they have to become evangelists. These steps will show effect in the long run, but they require constant repetition.