Mimicking the automated call from the Bank
Yesterday I almost fell into this Credit Card Fraud trap and I think, I should let the community know about this new innovative fraud technique. Usually we all know that the Bank keeps on repeating that they will never call us for any change related to the Credit Card, and there has been occasions before, when someone would call representing them as a bank official and I would simply disregard them, blocking the number. But this was not a human voice and instead an automated voice, and this is the first time, I came across this : Congratulations, you can now avail a free credit limit increase on your ICICI Bank Credit Card ending with xxxx. We have sent a message on your phone, please click the link on the message to proceed further.
The SMS came right at the time of the call, so there was no window left to think even. And I do receive similar calls from the banks, when I have a high value cheque presented for clearing, or a high value transaction done in the credit card. I have enabled them since a fraud happened on my credit card few years back, when someone did a transaction of 90k to purchase a bike at Pune. Fortunately I was not physically present, so the dispute went in my favor, with the bank taking care of that. And this time, the tone was exactly similar - a machine voice. But unfortunately, they reached to a wrong guy, who never want to increase credit limits, because it can brings in more risk of a fraud involving a bigger amount and more ever, I don't need them.
So I answered NO to the call ( ya, it was recognizing voice commands and even keyboard) after which the call got disconnected. But then when I closely looked at that link sent in the message, it definitely was a malicious link, which can easily trap a user, should he selects to proceed further. And I am sure, they have all the details of our Credit card as well as contact details, as the call started addressing me by name.
So going forward, I will be very careful answering calls that even sounds like automated as well. Stay alert, the fraudsters are always trying to come up with newer techniques that we might not know.
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