Scam, Scam, Scam.……Scams Everywhere!!!
How long will you take to earn 5 lakhs?
A minimum of 3–4 months or more than that, but scammers can earn more than 5 lakhs in a day. You did 4 months of hard work to earn that lump sum amount of money, But think 10 times when you are giving single rupee from your net-banking and digital wallets. Digital Payments is necessary for these days, but don’t get into a trap with scammers.
The Late Nobel prize-winner Dr Albert Schweitzer was once asked, “Doctor, what is wrong with men today?” The great doctor was silent a moment and then he said, “Men simply do not think”. This is the reason behind all scams, we simply don’t think. Think 10 times before you make digital payment.
How daily scams like Phishing calls and Online scam transactions are a huge loss to Government and Individual?
Assume you have 10000 rupees and want to invest in mutual funds. So you browsed over the internet, The next day you will see a lot of ads regarding the investment websites. Some websites may be good but some may be bad. So you clicked on scam website like scam.com and you entered the details. They called you and asked you to pay money, so you paid. Later you realised scam.com is fake and you lost 10000 rupees. Think about the people like you and websites like scam.com, 10000 rupees may be the small amount for you, but at the end, If they scammed 100 people they will get 1 crore, A simple equation for you to calculate, Money you got scammed multiplied by Number of People is equal to Money they earn(Number of People * Money you got scammed = Money the culprit earn). Think 10 times before you give your details. If you have invested the same amount in Good mutual funds website, the government will get tax from the mutual fund websites. So Each scam may cost the government much. If you register police complaint, It will take time to find the culprits and some times it is impossible to find them. Indian Government has to think about ramp-up with new laws to avoid people getting scammed.
How we got habituated to scamming?
We see in day-to-day life from e-commerce to dine-in restaurants. Fake websites in e-commerce, Spam Emails with a button click, Duplicate billing in Kirana shops, Over-priced items in restaurants, OTP sharing with scammers, Covid-19 vaccine scams and so on…There is no limit to scamming. We never asked bills in Petrol bunks, Kirana shops though billing software is there. Billing brings Transparency, So collect bills though it is not worth it for you. We never searched e-commerce websites are legitimate or not. We never questioned restaurants why you charge more than the MRP. We never questioned ourselves why we have to share OTP with others whatever be the OTP.
How can we stop scams?
- Block them irrespective of the call, whether it is from the bank, insurance or customer care support.
- Cross-check the website. Trust the websites which have an SSL certificate (HTTPS)
- See the logos of websites, Most of the times scammers are using WordPress websites.
- Never trust anyone over the phone who asks OTP.
- OTPs are not required for International online Txns, So please lock your credit card.
- If you have a lot of money, open a bank account without net banking, without a debit card, without cheque book …. Only Deposit account. This is how you can save from losing. Two benefits from this type of bank account opening, one you get interest from bank and other you can save money from losing to online fraudsters.
- Spread as much awareness as you can.
- If you got cheated by e-commerce websites and If the seller didn’t give the proper bill, raise a compliant in https://consumerhelpline.gov.in/ And If you got cheated by scams Please raise a complaint in https://cybercrime.gov.in/
My Contribution to stop scams
I have created a website to create awareness, Please visit the website. I will update the list of fake websites and news resources regularly. If you found a fake website, please share over chat. I enabled a chat window present on the bottom-right side of the page. I request you to not to get into scammers trap. If you don’t have time to cross-verify a website, I will do it for you. Share the website over chat with your mail-id. I will verify and tell you about the website.
Link to website: http://ashokdv.pythonanywhere.com/
