Mangaluru: Despite banks creating awareness among customers about not sharing credit or debit card numbers or one-time password (OTP) with unknown persons, many people from Dakshina Kannada are falling prey to OTP frauds. Every day, two such cases are reported in the district.

A sum of Rs 1 lakh was fraudulently withdrawn from the account of a private firm employee in Kavoor a few days ago. Some days later, another person was duped of Rs 35,000 after a cyber thief, who introduced himself as a bank staff, convinced him to give away the pin number of his ATM card. These are a few cases reported with the cyber police and some go unreported as the victims don’t lodge a complaint due to fear and other legal complications, according to police. “Dakshina Kannada sees at least two such OTP frauds every day. The main reason is negligence of card holders. If the OTP is shared by the customer, the victim is solely responsible for the loss,” said Savithra Tej, in-charge, Cyber Crime Cell, Mangaluru City Police.

Primary investigation revealed that most fraudsters spoke in Hindi and calls were traced to North Indian states. Their modus operandi is to obtain their target victim’s details through various sources and call the victim and try to get the OTP. “It is advisable not to entertain any phone calls, even if it’s from your loved ones, which demand bank details. No bank asks for your card number/ CVV/ OTP in any case,” Savithra said.

During online banking, it’s safe to do on a computer which has genuine operating software, including up-to-date anti-virus software.