Phenomenal 400% jump in credit card fraud cases in Mumbai

#creditcardfraud #cybercell #plasticmoney Credit cards have become a way of life and the rage in today’s world and, with advances in technology, fraudsters are using more and more sophisticated methods to carry out frauds on the unsuspecting common man.
People use this plastic money to buy anything from airline tickets to cinema tickets and from clothes to groceries and, as per reports, in the year just gone by, Mumbai has witnessed a case of credit/debit card fraud every alternate day (till November).
Statistics show that there were 159 cases of card fraud registered in 2014 – this was a near five-fold increase over the figures of 2013 which was just 32. The police report has revealed that out of the total cases registered from 2011 to 2014, 66.5% of cases were registered in 2014 alone.
The police attribute this sudden rise to the changing methods adopted by fraudsters.
The latest trend appears to be calls from fraudsters who pose as executives of banks and ask for confidential information to 'upgrade' a card. Earlier, there used to be the "salami attack" (use of an online database to get information and deduct small amounts from every account over time) and phishing mails (to cardholders asking them to share confidential data).
As has been explained by a senior inspector of the Mumbai cyber cell, most victims of cyber fraud are those who hold senior positions in the corporate sector or hail from generally well-to-do backgrounds – they usually become victims due to a lack of awareness.