Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a bold move and announced demonetization of old 500 and 1000 rupees notes on November 8th, 2016. The after-effects of the announcement are quite abnormal and at the same time appreciable. The move received support from several sections of the society but also caused massive problems for thousands of others.
It was one of the strong steps towards Digital Banking. The government declared keeping the cash was illegal and the people were enforced to deposit their salaries/pay in bank accounts only. But even after taking all safety measures since a year of demonetization, our Bank system is not secure enough.
The government has forced the public to deposit their money in banks but the hard-earned salaries are not safe there. A man named Shashwat recently lost Rs 1.3 lakhs after he tried to verify his phone number with Aadhar Card.
He received a phone call which suggested him to SMS his SIM number on Airtel’s official number 121. Under the impression of call being authentic, he performed the action, only to get robbed later with a heavy amount.
What happened was the fraud used his SIM number for SIM cloning and used it further for robbery. In a Facebook post, Shashwat has narrated the matter in detail. Reading the matter, we can understand how heartbroken he must be.
Here’s what he wrote in his post:
And in a blitz, my salary account was looted.
Hi guys! I just lost an amount of Rupees 1.3 lacs from my ICICI Bank salary account. A fraud, claiming to be from Airtel, gave me an ultimatum that Airtel would deactivate my SIM and block my number forever as I had not linked my Aadhar card to my SIM. He urged me to message my SIM card number to 121 (Official Airtel Service Number) and my SIM would be reactivated without any hassle. Little did I know that the fraudster would clone my SIM and loot all my hard earned money and also take away Investments (Fixed Deposits) that I had planned on using during the worst times of my life.
Is this all that was required to break my ICICI Bank Account? Is that how vulnerable technology has left us? I always thought that our accounts are well protected by layers of security. I was under the impression that a person would require my account details or debit card or some sensitive information that only I have, that I have been safeguarding every minute of my life, to break my account. But the truth is all that sensitive stuff is already floating around the criminal world waiting to be raided, as our beloved banks like ICICI Bank haven’t been able to keep what must only be ours, OURS!
It is unbelievable how easy it has become to steal from our accounts. All the fraudsters are doing is trying every trick they can think of to get that one tiny key that would break open a safe that seem to be safeguarded by hundred different locks.
The saddest part of this is, after the loot on day one, ICICI Bank was not able to protect the balance amount. Even after 18 hours of raising Service Request ( S/R 497438380 ) and repeated follow-ups on customer care and branch, the Bank was not able to freeze my balance and as a result of early next morning, the fraudster was easily able to walk away with the remaining amount. Dear ICICI Bank, are your services supposed to end in crisis or are you supposed to relieve the customers’ grievances and prevent further damage?
ICICI Bank needs to understand that a fraudster breaks much more than an account of his activities, he breaks a persons’ life.
I feel that the Bank has failed to protect my account effectively and are completely responsible for my losses. I hence demand ICICI Bank refund every single penny I’ve lost in this incident.
I would also like to speak out to my friends here, guys please be careful and wary of these frauds. The people who we think are securing us, are actually the ones screwing us.
The post went viral on social media and left everyone furious and vulnerable as people were scared about their own accounts. After it went viral, ICICI Bank replied Shashwat on his post and finally promised support.
So, guys, be careful of such fake calls and act smart.