I am an ENT surgeon and often receive payment for consultation online.It’s usually a routine affair.We keep one number for Digital payments for ease of checking.
That helped me.Plus my publicly available phone number being different from the one linked to bank if PayTM saved the day.
Now the story.
One fine Tuesday morning a man who introduced himself, to be a local CISF personnel called me up claiming to be in charge of arranging medical check up for new recruits.Since ENT medical checkup is a routine procedure I asked him to make an appointment and visit the clinic.
That’s when things got interesting. He was polite and said several hundred recruits were to be checked and I should recommend the right number per visit fir easy procedure.
Since mine is a small town local practice I needed to tell my staff about arranging other appointments accordingly.It was decided that 30 patients would be optimum per day for me to checkup .
When I conveyed this to the man over phone,he told me the finance officer would be clearing the payment online through PAYTM and I will then just have to screen the recruits.Payments would get done in batches of 30.
Our clinic has a specific number for receiving payment seperate from all other services and that was a good thing because the call turned out to be a scam.A video call with a man dressed in army fatigue was made who wanted me to open my back camera to record the PAY T M transaction happening in the other phone.
Stupid of me.I agreed.But the man had sent me his ID card the one below as proof of being a CISF personnel.
He gave me a Credit card number to add to PAYTM .I did.Then he said he would send me 10 rupees to confirm account and then send the rest of the money.But in the app it should we were sending him ten rupees and linking the card to the account.We didn’t click on it .My husband refused further transactions. The man kept insisting.
We requested him to visit clinic and confirm their ID ,bring official order for health check up before we accepted payment online .The man started cajoling me and said you can’t give 10 rupees for the country what will you do for your country?That’s when the coin really dropped in my head .
I immediately cut the connection.The dialogue was straight out of a B grade Bollywood film and no one I their right mind would say such a thing,during a financial transaction.
The day was saved,I was lucky .Thank you God and thanks to my husband’s quick thinking .
My sister was aghast and told me to watch the jamtara series and it was spooky ,how this menace is spreading its tentacles and trying to undermine the digital payment ecosystem.
Receiving payment online,Teleconsultation is routine affair nowadays and things like these strike at the heart of the community wellbeing.
Crimes like these are not just financial fraud by crimes against society.I complained to the cyberpolice division online and my complaint is under process.I was lucky ,hope this helps you.It could definitely have had a different sort of ending.
Things to Remember
Portal where I registered my complaint
https://cybercrime.gov.in/
Keep your mobile data off!
ATM ,POS machines may be location for hacking through debit and credit cards
Phonecall,email SMS could all be ways of stealing digital data and hacking your phone.
Keep your digital wallets secured.
Having a different phone for banking related transactions,is another layer of security.
Don’t reveal your card numbers to anyone.
Don’t receive video calls from strangers.
Keep your mobile data and wifi off ,when not using the internet and just receiving calls.
Other posts which will help you.
