Airtel has also warned its customers about KYC and OTP frauds when fraudsters impersonate and try to access their bank accounts. Airtel noted that an online fraudster had recently impersonated Airtel and called an Airtel customer an excuse to review his Know Your Customer (KYC) form.
After tricking her into disclosing her bank details, the fraudster withdrew a large sum of money from his bank account. Although Airtel and other telecommunications companies have warned users about this scam, some fraudulent customers fall victim to this scam.
Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal who sent an email to his customers said, “Customers can receive calls or messages from a fraudulent claimant from a bank or financial institution and request account or OTP details to open or renew an existing bank account.
The information is then used to withdraw money from the customer’s bank account. I therefore urge you to listen and proceed carefully and not to share any financial or personal information such as customer ID, MPIN, OTP, etc. by telephone. ”
Vittal urged customers to remain vigilant about calls made by online fraudsters posing as Airtel officials. He also elaborated on common fraud cases such as fake UPI handles or websites and fake OTPs and wrote down security measures, which each customer should take to protect himself from fraud.
He said, “If a customer downloads one of these, they will be asked to enter all their bank details and their MPIN and thus give the fraudster mentioned full access to your banking details.
Please avoid such websites and suspicious applications and avoid sharing any confidential information via email or by clicking on any suspicious link in the email, even if the request appears to be from authorities such as the Tax Department, Visa, or MasterCard, etc.
Telecom users often receive messages requesting failed KYC verification which means users will lose access to their numbers within 24 hours.
These messages also send a customer care number and users should call them. Users can easily spot fraudulent messages as they will have spelling and grammatical errors, even the company name will not be spelled correctly.
Airtel has previously issued a fraudulent warning to its customers which reads, “Airtel never asks you to share your eKYC information / Aadhaar number, download any application, call any mobile number to verify your Airtel number any SMS that your SIM has expired . Please keep an eye out for those calls / SMS as this could lead to financial fraud. ”
