December 24th is celebrated as National Consumer Rights Day every year in India. It was on this day in the year 1986, that the Consumer Protection Act was passed, which is considered to be a milestone in the consumer movement in the country. The day is celebrated to highlight the importance of the consumer movement and the need to make every consumer more aware of their rights and responsibilities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way we work and live. The transformation from manual to digital has been very fast in all sectors of the economy amid the pandemic. In absence of clear and accurate cyber-safety education, many people have been victims of cybercrimes, especially in form of financial frauds. In the absence of strict and clear laws on cyber security, it is important to work towards prevention of such frauds by utilisation of technology to install safety measures and to impart relevant education.
On this National Consumer Rights Day, let us look at some of the Financial Fraud Awareness campaigns organised by various financial institutions for the protection of the rights of consumers.
Reserve Bank of India’s eBaat Program
Banking regulator Reserve Bank of India has launched an e-banking awareness & training programme -eBAAT. The program is basically a set of guidelines provided by the central bank of the country, as ‘direction’ to other financial institutions to educate more customers about cybersecurity in the finance sector.
In addition to this, the apex bank has selected Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan as the face for its customer awareness campaign. As a part of this campaign, RBI informs the masses about dos and don’ts that should be followed by customers to ensure a safe and secure transaction. Besides, RBI has been running the campaign for over a year not only in English and Hindi but various regional languages for greater reach. It keeps posting the message so that people have complete awareness of their rights and responsibilities.
The central bank recently launched a second Twitter, @RBIsays, and a Facebook page by the same name to ensure wider dissemination of public-awareness messages with the aim to promote digital payments, according to its annual report.
HDFC Bank – Mooh Band Rakho
HDFC Bank Ltd. has announced the launch of ‘Mooh Band Rakho,’ a campaign to increase awareness on cyber frauds and preventing them. The campaign highlights how fraudulent transactions are rising at an alarming rate in the country today and urges consumers to not share personal information.
In the campaign film, rapper Kaam Bhaari and his team uncover a gang of scamsters who have been swindling innocent customers. The campaign song talks about how following simple steps such as not sharing card details, CVV, expiry date, OTP net banking / mobile banking login ID and password over the phone, SMS, email and social media can help the general public keep their money safe.
As part of the campaign, the bank will be conducting 1,000 workshops across the country. “Following simple steps such as not sharing card details, CVV, expiry date, OTP net banking/ mobile banking login ID and password over the phone, SMS, email and social media can help the general public keep their money safe. This campaign will talk about this and more,” the bank said in a statement.
This campaign is the need of the hour as more and more individuals are accessing banking services online. This has gathered momentum during the pandemic, Jimmy Tata, chief risk officer, HDFC Bank, said. “As a socially responsible corporate citizen, we regularly organise secure banking workshops for customers and the general public across the country. Through this campaign we are aiming to take it to the next level by involving all stakeholders including investigating agencies,” Tata stated further on the launch of the campaign.
RBL Bank’s #RahoCyberSafe Campaign
RBL Bank has launched a new campaign and created a series of consumer awareness videos called #RahoCyberSafe, with an aim to drive awareness amongst customers around social engineering frauds which are increasing with the rising adoption of digital ways of banking and payments.
The videos include a teaser at the outset, which describes a few real-life instances on how fraudsters call customers offering a lucrative schemes or request inputs for an urgent KYC updation. Later on, the individual videos elaborate on each instance and how to steer smartly from such fraud calls.
The company has taken insight from the day-to-day aspect of transactions, where people tend to share their sensitive information like card number, CVV number, OTP because they are caught unaware and in mid of their busy schedules and scamsters create a sense of urgency and panic. Also, emotions are best exploited by the scammer. In fact, well-read and educated people also fall prey to these frauds since they are caught unaware in their busy times of the day – in mid of travelling, working, cooking etc. In order to address this, the company has made an effort to identify and show the top trending frauds, and their modus operandi through the campaign.
Paytm – ‘Phone par Kaun tha’ campaign
Paytm has come with its latest video campaign ‘Phone par Kaun tha?’, featuring TV actor Rupal Patel’s viral Kokilaben character to spread awareness on KYC-related frauds. The video, which has gone viral on social media, informs users on how they should not fall prey to fraud calls or SMS, and protect themselves from phishing scams.
In the video, Rupal receives a call from someone claiming to be a Paytm executive. The imposter informs that her Paytm wallet has expired and she needs to download another app to complete her Paytm KYC. She is immediately suspicious and exclaims “Phone par jalsaaj tha!” (it was a fraudster on the phone). In the end, she urges viewers to be beware of such fake calls and SMS.
The key message Paytm wants to give out to users is that its KYC process can never be completed by downloading any other application. Customers should never share their personal information such as OTP, Passwords, CVV or PIN with anyone, and not fall prey to any ‘too good to be true’ offers. The company encourages users to report all such incidents through the app as well as to the nearest crime branch so that appropriate action can be taken.
