Airtel KYC fraud case: These people lost money; here's how to save yourself

Airtel KYC Fraud case: Scamsters never seem to let go of trying new ways to dupe innocent customers. Now, they are out once again to hunt and this time it is in the name of Airtel. A new scam has been going around under the disguise of Airtel KYC service that asks for all bank details as a solution to a fake problem. The scam has already claimed a couple of innocent users falling prey to these scamsters.

Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal has reached out to his Airtel customers, warning about the issue that has reportedly preyed upon a couple of innocent customers. He stresses upon the fact that neither Airtel nor any of its bank partners will ever reach out to the customer and ask for confidential details, especially over the phone.

Airtel CEO warns of new KYC fraud

“The customers can get calls or messages from the fraudster claiming to be from a bank or financial institution and ask for account details or an OTP to unblock or renew the existing bank account. The details are then used to withdraw money from the customer’s bank account. I urge you therefore to pay heed and proceed with care and do not share any financial or personal information like customer ID, MPIN, OTP, etc over the phone,” said Vittal in an email to his customers

Vittal also warned about any scamster trying to trick the customer by sending links to download a fake bank app or something else. These fraudsters can often pose an Airtel executives and dupe you into sharing you credentials.

“If a customer downloads one of these, he will be asked to enter all his bank details as well as his MPIN thereby granting the fraudster in question complete access to your bank details. Please avoid such suspicious websites and apps and avoid sharing any confidential information via email or through a click on any suspicious link in the email, even if the request seems to be from authorities like the Income Tax Department, Visa, or MasterCard, etc,” Vittal elaborated.

Top mantra for staying safe from scamsters:

- Do not share you bank details with anyone over the phone. This includes net banking password, net banking ID, any unverified OTP, or IFSC code.

- Do not click on links shared by any caller. Links can contain malware.

- Do not make any payments over the UPI to any customer representative for a telecom company, bank or other institution.