Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic broke in March in India, people have been living in fear. The daily lifestyle of everyone has practically changed, with people now moving about with caution – only in known circles, maintaining personal hygiene, social distancing and more. The hope of vaccine is what has kept people going for so many months, half of which went under strict home lockdown. Even with the vaccine's arrival, there's more precaution to exercise or you could risk losing all your money.
In 2020, we've seen how scammers and hackers changed their ways. Cybercrimes spiked during the pandemic and perpetrators used phones, emails, social media, etc to skim off some quick cash or gather personal information on an individual. Working from home became a norm this year and has led to security breaches. Scammers have used malware, phishing scams in the context of coronavirus to lure victims.
Now with the news of COVID-19 vaccine, hackers have a new way to trick unsuspecting individuals into giving away their hard-earned money.
COVID-19 vaccine scam
Fraudsters are working under the guise of "registering" for COVID-19 vaccine. Victims would get a call from scammers asking for Aadhaar, email, etc and then the OTP for Aadhaar, which is sent to the registered phone number. Using all this information, fraudsters will easily be able to scam off money from Aadhaar-linked bank accounts.
How to stay safe?
First of all, there is no registration for the COVID-19 vaccine yet. Anyone claiming otherwise is trying to trick people.
In order to avoid getting scammed, the thumb rule is to NEVER share your credentials such as Aadhaar, personal email, phone numbers, etc over the phone or email. Above all, never share any OTP that is sent to your registered mobile number with anyone.
When you're calling customer service of any company, make sure you fetch their contact number from the official website rather than some third-party site or the top Google Search result.
Make sure senior citizens are advised NEVER to share any kind of information with strangers over the phone or email.
