2022-11-11 | Awas Modus

Beware of Scammers Claiming to Be Representatives of Cell Phone Provider

Cell phone has become an inseparable part of our lives. Not only for work or school, but also entertainment needs. To use one, we need a mobile service provider. They offer various products and rewards. Unfortunately, this also encourages fraudsters to take advantage of negligent users.

The rise of this type of fraud should alert users and banking customers to be more vigilant. Verify before sharing any confidential data or making fund transfer to an internet provider. Here are some fraud modes on behalf of mobile service providers via WhatsApp or phone call you should be cautious about.

Cell Phone Fraud

In their actions, generally the perpetrators use foreign numbers, for example +1xxx or numbers that resemble customer service providers of mobile phonesThe Customer Service of a mobile service provider usually uses hot number or a number with the prefix +62 or 021. The way to contact them also varies, such as calling, sending SMS, or chatting via WhatsApp or iMessage.

To convince potential  victims, the perpetrator will do things to appear like the provider company. They would usually name their account “Official Account”. They would also use the mobile service provider’s logo as avatar in the chat application.

The perpetrator will pretend to contact the customer and claim to be the official officer of the mobile service provider used for subscription. This can be done a random number or they already have detailed information about the victims.

Usually, the perpetrator open the conversation friendly to emotionally engage their victims. They will then inform the victim that their reward points can now be disbursed to their personal account, “Congratulations, you have won a number of reward points that can be used to pay bills and can also be disbursed to your BCA account.”

The victims will be asked to send their data for verification reasons so they can cash out the points. The data will include KTP, account number, ATM BCA card number, PIN, or OTP. Some may also ask the victim to fill in their data through a fake link.

In some cases, fraudsters register OneKlik using the victim's phone number on an online merchant without the victim's knowledge and direct them to activate it on their BCA mobile. As a result, the fraudsters successfully hack the victim's money by making several illegal transactions.

Never share your banking information with anyone, even with the official telecommunication provider or the Bank BCA. If this information has been disclosed to malicious parties, it is likely that the victim’s BCA account has been breached and accessed by the attacker.

How to Avoid Cell Phone Fraud

If you don’t want to become a victim of this fraud, take a look at the following tips carefully.

  • Do not immediately trust a caller claiming to be Customer Service Officer of a mobile service provider. Check and confirm the validity of such information, not only from the logo on WhatsApp.
  • Always maintain the confidentiality of your banking data such ATM card number, PIN, CVV/CVC, OTP code, etc. Don’t become a victim of fraud if there are parties on behalf of a mobile service provider customer service  or anyone else asking for your banking data.
  • If you’re a victim of fraud, immediately report it to the bank. For BCA customers, report it to Halo BCA di 1500888, without any prefixes 021, +62, etc. or via haloBCA app, which can be downloaded on AppStore and Playstore.
  • In some cases, fraudsters target OneKlik. To reduce the risk of loss, you can minimize the total daily transaction limit of OneKlik across all OneKlik merchants through BCA mobile. To do this, access BCA mobile, open the m-Admin feature, select "Set OneKlik," then open the active account, and choose "Set Limit" (with a maximum limit of IDR 3 million per day)
  • You can also temporarily block or delete your active OneKlik account on BCA mobile. To do this, access BCA mobile, open the m-Admin feature, select "Set OneKlik," and then choose which account you want to block or delete.

If you want to know more about the latest banking fraud, visit www.bca.co.id/awasmodus

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