Key Takeaways
- KYC frauds are carried out by impostors pretending to be bank employees
- Classic give away of a KYC scam is time-bound action from your end and a threat of account suspension if it is not performed
- Educating yourself about KYC is the first step towards its prevention
- If anything appears suspicious, call your financial provider directly to clarify
KYC stands for Know Your Customer. It is the process by which a financial institution authenticates their customer's identity and weigh the risks of doing business with them. With digital transactions on the rise, the need for KYC became all the more important; and scammers used it as yet another opportunity to dupe unsuspecting people.
The fraudsters impersonate employees of legitimate financial companies and send out messages to their customers to update KYC. These messages have two things in common – a threat of service discontinuation or account suspension and urgent action required from the customer's end. The message will typically have a bogus link to click on or a number where one is supposed to call back to carry out the required action. Texts like these stress the customer, and they get conned into sharing confidential data such as CVV, OTP, or the PIN.
How to identify a KYC fraud text
- Incorrectly framed sentences
- A different domain name, but resembling the actual https://www.bajajfinserv.in
- Salutation is generic – Dear customer
- Intimidating tone – card has already been suspended
- Urgent action required from the receiver's end
