Trusting Truecaller can ruin your bank account in a moment, what to do to avoid it?
Trusting Truecaller can ruin your bank account in a moment, what to do to avoid it?
Olympian and taekwondo coach Deepak Bisht received a call a few days ago. Truecaller showed that the call was from Krishi Bikash Bank.
Beast picked up the phone believing the logo and name seen in the app. After picking up the phone, the person from that number introduced himself saying that he was calling from the IT department of Krishi Bikas Bank. He asked for the account number, pin, password and OTP of the beast saying that the account should be upgraded after he was convinced. Despite giving all other details, Beast did not give the OTP code. He knew that the bank never asks for the OTP code. Therefore, he hung up the phone immediately and called the main office of the bank and informed about this matter. Then the bank employee informed that the number does not belong to the bank. Since the OTP was not given, the money in Beast's bank was saved from being stolen.
A ward member of Nagarjuna municipality also received a similar call. As soon as the call came, the number was found to be that of Krishi Bikas Bank in Truecaller. After having the bank's logo and name on it, the ward representatives were also convinced. In terms of business, that representative is also the manager of a cooperative. The person claiming to be calling from the bank asked the ward representative for his bank account, password, PIN and OTT. The ward member also provided all the details. However, shortly after that, two lakh 75 thousand rupees disappeared from his account.
These are only two representative cases. In recent times, it has been seen that there is an increase in cases of cheating by using organization name, logo and person's name and photo on Truecolor app. Concerned agencies have been requested to be vigilant by naming high-ranking police officers, high-ranking employees of banks and financial institutions, and making them aware of fraud cases.
How reasonable is it to believe that names and photos are seen in Truecolor?
Truecaller is one such mobile app, which helps to identify unknown phone numbers. Let's see an example to understand how this app works. Suppose there is a person named 'Shyam Sharma'. He installed the Truecolor app on the phone.
After installing the app, he has to give all kinds of access to the app. It asks for access to see the numbers of all the people in Shyam's contact, read messages, make calls, know the location, etc. The app will not run unless some basic permissions are given. Let's discuss below why it asks for permission.
After giving all the access, Shyam has to create an account. He creates an account with his name and email. To complete the profile 100%, you have to keep the address, place of work and profile picture. If these details are kept, Shyam's account will be verified. If you search for Shyam's number from a phone that has not saved the number, it will show Shyam's name, email, photo, and everything he does. Also, the verified mark is also visible behind the name.
This is the reference to the verified name. No one has installed Truecaller but the name is showing when searching for their number. How does this happen?
We discussed above that Truecaller asks for access to contacts ie all the numbers saved on your device before working on the phone. Yes, in this way, the contacts of those who have created an account in Truecolor are stored in its database. And, if a person searches for a number in it, it informs that this number belongs to this person.
We rarely keep a person's name and surname only. If it is a close person, we save it as 'Rajesh dai' after the name like this relationship. If you want to work somewhere, we put the name of the place where you work after the person's name. Some are angry. We are keeping his name like that. By taking these contacts, Truecaller tries to give information about which number belongs to whom.
The same number may be saved under different names in the phonebook of different users. In this case, Truecolor gives priority to the most frequently used name and displays it as the identifier of the corresponding number.
When a call comes from an unknown number, Truecaller immediately scans its database and tries to identify that number. If the number is found in the database, the name linked to that number will be displayed on your screen.
Truecaller also uses special technology to identify spam numbers. Users can report spam calls. When reported, Truecaller marks the number as 'spam' in its database. So the next time someone calls from that number, Truecaller will show 'Spam' on the screen.
Truecaller shows the name of the person who has created an account on the platform as verified. Truecolor does not prove that this person is the same person. After completing the profile with name, number, email and photo, it will make the account verified. Apart from that, it shows that this number belongs to this person based on the name saved by others.
As recently, the name and logo of the bank has started to be seen as verified in Truecolor. In this case, the scammer keeps the number and creates an account on Truecaller. Based on that, some people believe that the number belongs to a bank or a high-ranking employee.
In this way, Cyber Bureau spokesperson and Superintendent of Police Deepak Raj Awasthi said that users will be cheated if they trust only the name and logo and verified mark on Truker. "There has been an increase in cases of cheating using someone else's name and number on Truecaller, WhatsApp and Telegram," he said.
Sthi said, "Just because a photo or a name is seen on this app, you cannot be sure that it is a person with that name."
Superintendent of Police Awasthi said that if a person asks for help or asks for personal details on any social media or phone and messaging app, they should be suspicious. He suggested that if you have to do business in such a situation, you should do business only after understanding or verifying it.
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