The New Year arrived with a big bang, nothing unusual about it. like in the past, we have started taking new resolutions this year too.
Many also look back and try to analyse how far they have succeeded in fulfilling the previous pledges and there are many who without believing in a ‘look-back’ or postmortem of the past have been spurred to look ahead and strive for the new ventures. For, they don’t want to lose heart by blues of the past and eye a rosy future.
In the high-speed world of information technology (IT), we have been able to create smarter people and equally smarter businesses and tricks. There seems always to be a cut-throat race to be smarter than the smartest. And, the clear divide along the digital line has been the proverbial ‘horn of plenty’ for those who are in the forefront, while those who lag behind suffer the worst.
I would like to simplify my point by drawing an example from our ordinary experience. Today’s IT driven banking which affects one and all has been no doubt a boon, for it has ensured speed, precision and ease, but on the flip side, it too has been a bane for many who have been taken for a ride by the fraudsters.
Every day not just the gullible people, at times the knowledgeable ones are trapped by the fraudsters and suffer irreparable financial loss. Decades back, we heard of miscreants cheating gullible people from villages who visited a bank or Government treasury to withdraw money. They pussy-footed them and applied various funny tricks to divert their mind on cash and easily rendered them poorer by thousands of rupees.
There have been instances when the thugs sprinkled ink on clothes or threw sand in eyes or dirt on face to divert attention and snatched and fled with the cash from the victims. However, while such incidents are rare these days, what has replaced them is a new IT-driven cheating.
The trend quite in tune with the time has grown serious and hundreds are falling prey to it. Prank or spurious calls by crime syndicates have made life difficult for many. ATM fraud and illegal cash transfer have been more a rule than exception.
The shock is that one never knows about being robbed of and just for a silly mistake of sharing banking details with the prank caller like telling card or policy number, any secret code or OTP (one time pass word), lakhs of rupees get debited from account in matter of a few seconds!
Cyber crime has been a tough nut to crack for the police. In most of such cheating cases, the success rate has been negligible. For checking this crime which has taken a serious proportion now, the Government and stakeholders owe a big responsibility.
Since all bank transactions are digitalised, the common people have to be made aware of them and especially should be cautioned how to remain safe in all eventualities. There are many ATM card holders who go near ATM booths and seek stranger’s help to withdraw cash by sharing their secret codes.
The banks have opened ATMs in rural belts but in creating awareness drive, they seem to cut a sorry figure. The trend can be checked by a concerted effort and we must resolve to fight this digital thuggery this New Year. Happy New Year to all!