SBI customers alert! Don't fall for EMI moratorium fraud; do this to save money

SBI EMI Moratorium Fraud: The State Bank of India has warned EMI moratorium seekers about cyber criminals, who are using coronavirus lockdown as opportunity to deceive bank customers.

SBI EMI Moratorium Fraud: The State Bank of India said that the SBI EMI moratorium guidelines are available on the official website of the SBI — onlinesbi.com or sbi.co.in. Photo: Reuters

SBI EMI Moratorium Fraud: The State Bank of India (SBI) has warned EMI moratorium seekers about cyber criminals who are using coronavirus lockdown as opportunity to deceive bank customers. The largest bank of India has communicated to its home loan, car loan, bike loan and other loan borrowers to avoid calls where the caller poses himself or herself as SBI officer and asks for whether they want to avail the SBI EMI moratorium or not. After getting answer to their question, the fraudsters ask the SBI customer to reply to the SMS they would be getting. This can be either sharing the OTP coming through a text message or clicking on the link coming in through the SMS. In both circumstances, SBI loan borrowers fall prey to the cybercriminals.

"A new style of cybercrime has been started by fraudsters. In such frauds, customers get calls asking them to share their OTP in order to postpone their loan EMIs. Once the OTP is shared, the amount is immediately siphoned away by fraudsters," SBI said in a message to its customers.

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The bank also said that the SBI EMI moratorium guidelines are available on the official website of the SBI — onlinesbi.com or sbi.co.in. The SBI EMI moratorium seeking loan borrowers can go to these official SBI websites and let the bank know about their priority.

Speaking on the online fraudsters are operating in this time of EMI moratorium offer by the SBI; Pawan Duggal, a NEW Delhi-based cybercrime expert said, "By calling to the SBI or any other bank custoemrs as bank officials asking them whether they want EMI moratorium or not, actually they are executing the malware phishing, where they would either ask for your OTP or force you to click on a given link. Once the customer does this, entire data of the bank customer including bank account number, customer ID, date of birth, Aadhaar Card number, PAN card number, etc. These information are enough to execute online bank fraud and these pseudo bank official asking SBI EMI moratorium seekers to share OTP or click on a link are trying to do the same."

Duggal advised loan borrowers to remain informed about the banking norms and rather complying to the calls of the bankers, one can directly do this by logging in a the official website of the bank or the given toll-free number of the bank customer care available on the official website of the bank.

Duggal also advised bank customers to download anti-malware software on their computer, smartphones and android phones. It is easily available in a single google search and it's free of cost. This anti-malware software will help bank customers avoid getting trapped in any such online bank fraud if they unknowingly click on the link or share OTP.

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