With the COVID pandemic, there's an increase in cybercrimes. But there's also an uptick of false information making the rounds, letting people believe what's otherwise fake. Fuelling the fake news mill is a viral message circulating on social media and in WhatsApp groups. Claiming to be from RBI, the notice advises people to press Cancel button twice before using an ATM machine.
The claim
A viral image claiming to be from RBI instructs people regarding secure use of ATM machines. The image says it is important to press "cancel" button twice before inserting your debit card into the machine. This practice, it claims, prevents PIN theft in case anyone has set up the keypad.
"Please make it a habit and part of every transaction that you make," the message reads, on a backdrop of tricolour and the image also has a national emblem.
Besides this, a WhatsApp message with the same instructions in text format with a headline "Message from RBI" to grab reader's attention. Reading this, many people are actually believing it to be true.
Fact check
International Business Times reviewed the claims made in the viral message and image and found them to be false. Firstly, an official RBI notice wouldn't be shared in the way the viral message has portrayed. However, if someone recreated it, it had to be available on RBI's official website.
RBI's FAQs on ATMs don't have anything about pressing cancel twice before using the machine to avoid PIN theft. It rather gives the best practices to keep ATM transactions secure, which you can read below.
Snopes already debunked the message earlier this month and said the claims made in it are false. Users should be wary of such claims, especially when such messages have a website link. Users mustn't click on links included in such fraudulent messages.
Hence, IBTimes arrived at the conclusion that the pressing cancel button twice before using ATM machine is a baseless claim and definitely not from RBI.
