Pensioners - soft targets of hackers

It is official that the cyber malefactors have been calling pensioners to update their life certificate by getting their data from somewhere such as date of appointment, date of retirement, PPO number, Aadhar number, e-mail, address, monthly pension, nominee etc. The fraudsters call pensioners with their data to convince them that they are calling from the Pension Department and ask the pensioners to share OTP for updating their Life Certificate. Once they get the OTP from Pensioners, the fraudsters get direct access to their bank accounts and transfer the amount from pensioner’s account to a fraud account.

Cybercriminals always opt for an easy way to make big money. A report from Tsaaro, has revealed key findings of its survey on privacy among elders and the data privacy scare of their present and future. Over 1,000 people across India took Tsaaro’s survey on privacy among elders. It found that the elderly have a low awareness of privacy issues and are unable to protect their personal information online.

· 70% of the participants consider elders to be a soft target for online frauds

· 53% have had an elder in their circle as a victim of cyber fraud

· 70% said that they are aware of the concept of data privacy

· 55% believe elders comprise a marginalised group, when it comes to digital privacy

· 53% are not aware of the laws surrounding privacy in the country

· 29% think existing laws surrounding privacy are enough to enable elders to protect their privacy online

· 44% were of the opinion that more regulations need to be enacted for privacy

· 37% were not sure whether more regulations are needed

· 20% were of the opinion that there is no need for more legislations to be enacted

Cyber crooks target the senior citizens through social platforms, as they connect themselves through various apps including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and others, with the identity threats for taking money being the main aim.

By making friends, they have access to a number of types of data, from credit card information and contact information to IP addresses, usernames and passwords. Several hundred cases are reported and not reported, and it has become common to share WhatsApp links and then hack the bank account of the app user.

It is advised to file the complaint to the cyber helpline 1930. The National Cyber Crime Helpline 1930 helps to recover money lost to online financial crime. Initially, primary details of the financial transaction will be asked, following which a mechanism will be initiated to rescue the stolen money to wherever it landed. Action will be taken by the police as per the crime.

Pensioners are cautioned by the department of Finance, Government of India to beware of these types of fraud calls and intimated that no person on behalf of CPAO calls to pensioners to ask any detail or share OTP. Therefore, all the pensioners are advised not to share OTP or any other details etc. for any update for pension to avoid such fraud.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA