[jkrishnakj]

The TRAI DND app doesn’t seem to be working for iOS anymore. Reporting was very easy through that. I’m not sure how long that isn’t working, I’ve seen an increased number of calls in the past 7-8 days ever since i lost ability to report calls thru thr trai DND app.

[avk]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

The TRAI DND app doesn’t seem to be working for iOS anymore. Reporting was very easy through that. I’m not sure how long that isn’t working, I’ve seen an increased number of calls in the past 7-8 days ever since i lost ability to report calls thru thr trai DND app.

It's not working for android too for the past 2+ weeks at least. In the app store reviews, saw many comments about the app not working and yet no communication from the developer in resolving it. It was an effective app and sad to see it get neglected like this.

[Capri89]

Received the following message from the number 77250 19045

*"Dear user your ICICI Bank Account will be blocked 9:30 Pm Today please update your PAN CARD immediately Open ICICI Bank apk"*

followed by an attachment with suffix .apk

Did not open the attachment and blocked the number.
Surprisingly the number has icici bank logo as DP.

Just curious to know what is .apk files.

[Everlearner]

Originally Posted by Capri89

Received the following message from the number 77250 19045

*"Dear user your ICICI Bank Account will be blocked 9:30 Pm Today please update your PAN CARD immediately Open ICICI Bank apk"*

followed by an attachment with suffix .apk

Did not open the attachment and blocked the number.
Surprisingly the number has icici bank logo as DP.

Just curious to know what is .apk files.

.apk files are android application installable files. Be very careful and don't accept any .apk file from unknown sources

[bigben]

Originally Posted by Capri89

Received the following message from the number 77250 19045

*"Dear user your ICICI Bank Account will be blocked 9:30 Pm Today please update your PAN CARD immediately Open ICICI Bank apk"*

followed by an attachment with suffix .apk

Did not open the attachment and blocked the number.
Surprisingly the number has icici bank logo as DP.

Just curious to know what is .apk files.

these are installation files that once installed will probably take over the phone and install a malware and let the creator of the app take control of the phone. Sad to see the extent that crooks will take to fool people and then rob them.

[d.w.w.]

Originally Posted by Capri89

Surprisingly the number has icici bank logo as DP.

Well, there is no surprise here. The logo is available in public domain and anyone can use it for illegal activities. These days since organizations are contacting customers over WhatsApp via business accounts, fraudsters can impersonate as any business account and unsuspecting customers can fall prey. Seems to be the latest idea for scams.

[NG_EV]

A very good video from YouTube channel Gyan Therapy explaining a scam going on through YouTube adverts.

https://youtu.be/IhfdQ4t4dWs

[ValarMorghulis]

Something interesting happened yesterday.
Apprehensive about Citibank migrating the accounts to Axis, I moved entire saving account corpus to HDFC savings account.

And since yesterday, I have received more than a dozen SMSs from different numbers saying "You HDFC Netbanking will CLOSED today if PAN not updated. Click this link to update" with spelling and grammatical mistakes abound.

How do these scammers know if an account is flush with cash? Tipped from bank folks?
What else could it be?

[d.w.w.]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

And since yesterday, I have received more than a dozen SMSs from different numbers saying "You HDFC Netbanking will CLOSED today if PAN not updated. Click this link to update" with spelling and grammatical mistakes abound.

How do these scammers know if an account is flush with cash? Tipped from bank folks?
What else could it be?

I received the exact same message yesterday. I had an HDFC account in late 2000s and haven't used it since 2011 or so, so I can tell you its not based on the account balance.

Banks might generate reports of customers and share with loan/credit card agents for making calls and some agents might sell this outside to make some quick buck. The scammer will then buy this from the data broker and sends out these phishing SMS.

[rohitoasis]

^^. Yes this message has been coming since the last weekend. As soon as i saw it. I was reminded of similar message from SBI from a few years back. I immediately marked it as spam and blocked it. I keep a very small amount in HDFC. So it is not based on balance for sure. Quite a lot of HDFC users also are getting it as i understand from my banker. They have shared this update in their website as well as Twitter.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

How do these scammers know if an account is flush with cash? Tipped from bank folks?
What else could it be?

I closed my HDFC bank account 5 years back. Yet I received this message. I never had an SBI account, yet I keep getting SBI Yono fake messages. These fake messages have nothing to do with your active bank accounts is or the balance. Even if 1 in a million falls for the scam, they hit a jackpot.

[car_addict]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

The TRAI DND app doesn’t seem to be working for iOS anymore. Reporting was very easy through that. I’m not sure how long that isn’t working, I’ve seen an increased number of calls in the past 7-8 days ever since i lost ability to report calls thru thr trai DND app.

The TRAI app crashes at the point where you have to enter the text to describe the call. The keyboard stops responding in the text field and doesn't allow you to continue. I found a Shortcut which I have been using since a long time and still works perfectly.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/3a4...cb85404340aebe

It just composes an SMS and sends it. It should continue to work until TRAI decides to mess with the SMS reporting format.

[NG_EV]

How scam calls almost cost me a job opportunity:

I had filled up a form for a government job in Haryana state. The interview process was delayed. On 27th I got 2 calls from number starting with 0172. This is the number of Chandigarh/Panchkula region. I get robocalls from HDFC starting with this number. As I was used to rejecting the calls from 0172, I rejected the calls (I am not using Truecaller). Thankfully I also got a mail from the Harayana Public Service Commission regarding the interview and was able to attend the same.

[dpaul]

From what I believe, the grammatical mistakes in the fraud banking sms'es are intentional. They want to trap only those who are gullible enough to fall for these scams inspite of the wrong grammar. It wont be wrong to assume that those who are discerning enough to identify the wrong grammar won't fall for these kind of trap easily.

I once tried to open the fraud SBI links that they send along with their fraud sms. The webpage that I was directed to was a spitting image of the SBI offical net banking page . The only difference is that in addition to the ID and password field, there was an additional field for entering your phone number. Those who are not very familiar with internet banking might easily fall for these scams. Will try to see if I still have the sms so that I can post the screen shot of the fake website.

Nowadays, we have to exercise our judgement at every step when it involves internet transactions, whether financial or otherwise.

Regards.

[Oxy]

Got a call from this number yesterday: 1244282109.

No country code, just this number appearing on my phone's screen while it was ringing.

Rejected the call as it looked fishy. Has anyone else experienced this?