Desi Slice 6 - India's Fintech Boom: A Double Edged Sword -The Unbridled Rise of Cyber Crimes

Ubiquitous mobile internet, e-commerce savvy, click-happy population easy targets for cybercrime syndicates making booty sitting in remote locations on the fly!

There is a downside to every uptick - an ugly outcome to everything good.

India’s fintech is now rated as the fastest-growing fintech industry globally. The #UPI interface for open connectivity, commerce, and payment, over a unique identity called #aadhar backed by a progressive govt policy, has helped. The cellular penetration of close to 95% with about 600-700 mil internet-enabled digital devices has resulted in a social media boom.

Most of these users have bank accounts, digital payment capability, and pay for transactions as low as $0,10 to anything as high as $1000 over Google Pay, PhonePe, or a host of other payment options. Cash payments have crashed to an all-time low.

So far, so good.,

Now the ugly side -

Fake calls, spammy calls, digital arrests and digital threats, and cyber crimes of all kinds have gone through the roof.

While senior citizens who are not entirely net savvy are easy victims, professionals, corporate execs, lawyers, and professors are regular victims too.

This year alone - India saw over Rs 320 Cr (about $40mil ) of reported (not counting unreported scams) in about 6 months.

I know of almost everyone who gets at least 1 or 2 spam calls a day - some crap like #FEDEX or #telecom ministry or #juidicial court stating some ridiculous claims that you have been involved in some drug consignment or something shady.

I am glad that #airtel recently claimed that their new anti-spam software called out a few million fake SIM numbers and several mil fake SMS messages.

The regulators should step in now and do the following (if not already)

1 - all telcos should clean up their SIM base and blacklist and disable spam callers, calls and messages

2 - users should be told to blacklist fake calls and there should be a mechanism to update the HLR db immediately (no need to check if the number has been marked SPAM by at least 10 users)

3 - banks db should be updated every 6 hours or so with fake SIM db updates - so there is no delay in blanking out these transactions

4 - all contact centers should be revalidated through software and the outbound numbers to be checked to be sure that there are no fake SIMs or callers (even if the callers are remote) The numbers are being generated from somewhere (nail those call generators, seize the equipment, freeze the operations and file a criminal complaint against the offenders)

5 -I understand that quite a few of these are possibly happening from overseas (we know from where!). Such VoIP numbers can be stalled from country code but if they are IP calls, those numbers have to get through a VoIP trunkning g/way and should be circumscribed at that point. In any case, VoIP calls to PSTN are not allowed in India and to that extent, it is already illegal.

The best way to nail such callers is to ensure consumer education - (BSNL has been doing this for some time). Educate them about fraudulent practices - blank call appearing on the phone, or country codes starting with +3666 and many others are fake calls. To report such calls immediately to a toll-free line or a web portal to assist in isolating such callers and preventing more damage.

6 - Every messaging app should insist on 2FA (including bank transactions) so that even if a payment wallet is hacked, a phone OTP should be still under user control.

7 - The most common fake call is about some story that the caller gives you - that all your phones and messages will be locked out in the next two hours. This is the dumbest thing on the planet - and if you understand this - you should simply say - go ahead and block it for the next 5 years - I don't give a f*!

Why should I care - great no bills to pay. Please understand that no legal authority in India can block your calls or messages without giving you a reason, showing proof, and giving you a notice to explain yourself - and only after that if they have valid reasons can they even discuss blocking anything.

Instead of even asking questions, people panic and give away everything as if they are already known criminals.

Even if for some reason someone used your phone number to book contraband material for transit or transport - why don't you get details and tell them to show you the proof?

Why go overdrive on guilt?

I do not understand why professors and (even a retired police officer) mindlessly agree and pay out huge sums (in tens of lacs of Rupees) to escape the wrath of scamsters who are half-educated idiots - who have nothing more than a broken laptop and a mobile phone connected to the internet with a few databases online.

The scam ring is now building scale and you can hear other callers behind the voice speaking to you.

This means they are running a full-fledged operation in some basement and pulling off hard-earned life savings in minutes and laughing all the way to the bank (in fact, not even that - they get the money into their account and distribute it) and block the caller. And move on.

Should something like this happen, at least you should immediately report to the local police station, inform the bank, and inform the cyber crime cell in your area and the telco. If it requires a FIR please do not hesitate so that the cops can now officially take action. If you do not, then nothing will be done and you are selfishly allowing emboldening these criminals to continue and cause more damage to hundreds of others.

This could happen to any one of us -and in a moment of distraction, you could hit that link and or share an OTP enter a Yes instead of No, or just pick up a call.

Be present

Be cautious

Be alert

Do not impulsively scroll or click any BS that shows up on the screen

Also, try NOT to use the phone first thing in the morning or last thing going to bed with half-sleepy eyes (my friend recently sent money to the wrong person - just as soon as he woke up, with groggy eyes and it was gone forever). The receiver blocked his calls and the bank refused to intervene.)

Some useful tips to avoid these situations:

1 - do not binge-watch and transact like mad with no thinking. No phones the first hour after waking or last before going to bed

2 - never pick up unknown calls - ask them to email instead (banks will do that willingly)

3 -Never respond to unknown SMS, messages WA

4 - Never Never click on links through messages from unknown people

5 -never share OTP never share OTP never share OTP

6 - read 5 again

7 -never scan the QR code if you do not know the guy

8 -always pay a small amount to test if it is right before sending out large amounts for even known people

9 -avoid using public wifi (even hotels). Mobile hotspots are safer

10 - always have 2FA authentication on WA and phone banking etc - so you are safer.

Let’s hope these will help at least some of you. 

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1. Owner: Sridhar Pai Tonse - Tonse Pai Academy.
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