In the digital world, your ID and Password enable access to your bank account and this utmost care needs to be taken to maintain secrecy of account/card credentials. Any compromise of this confidential information would pose a risk to your hard-earned money. Despite a lot of customer education and awareness across the various channels, advising the customers not to share their card number, PIN, CVV, Expiry date, account password, etc, still there are users falling prey to the ill designs of the fraudsters and end up in losing their money.

What is Account/Card Takeover?

Account takeover is a form of identity theft and fraud, where a malicious user successfully gains access to a user’s account credentials to siphon off money from the victim’s account. Account takeover can happen by gaining access to the user ID and password as well as getting details of credit card/debit card such as card number, validity date, CVV, and so on. For example, access to the User ID and Password details of net banking would allow the user to successfully log in to victim’s bank account and carry out transactions. The fraudsters are smart enough to get details of OTP for authentication of transactions.

To capture details of customers’ accounts, the fraudsters use various tactics, like

Call the bank customers posing as Bank executives and lead them to click a link to update their KYC which prompts the user to input his account number, user ID, password or even card details.
Call /email regarding cash back, refunds, gift vouchers, entitlements, etc
Swap Card at ATMs in the guise of providing help and accessing PIN details of users in a clandestine manner

Points to Remember

Creating strong, unique usernames and alphanumeric passwords for every site.
Never share account number, OTP, Password, Card number, expiry date, CVV, etc. Paytm never calls you to share your personal details.
Ignore KYC-related calls/SMS sent by fraudsters and never call the mobile number mentioned in the SMS
If you receive a call from an unknown number posing as a bank executive, take your time to judge the authenticity of the caller. In the slightest of doubt, do not respond to any query asking for your account details
Be careful about the security of the network when you use a public network for banking transactions
Keep secrecy of your Card PIN and ensure nobody is having access to it. Never write your PIN on the card
Check the surroundings in the ATM room to ensure nobody has access to your PIN
Change your password, and PIN frequently
The bank sends SMS for transaction alerts, and points out immediately if any wrong transaction is noticed
Always use Paytm helpline numbers listed at https://www.paytmbank.com/Policies/Customer-Grievance-Redressal-Policy-for-Paytm-Payments-Bank.html to raise your concern.