A flexi at SBI’s Home Loan Centre at Himayatnagar in Hyderabad
K Diwakar, the father of a student who’s got an MS seat in a European country, had never done an online transaction till yesterday. And, when he finally attempted to transfer ₹2.50 lakh to his son towards payment of college fee through his ICICI Bank mobile app, he got a pop-up message from the bank – It seems you have never done this (online transaction) before. If it is related to a digital arrest scam or any cyber fraud, exercise caution.
“I paused and gave it a thought before going ahead with the payment to my son’s SBI account,” Diwakar said.
Recently, an alert SBI official in Hyderabad sensed something was wrong when a visibly stressed customer was trying to transfer funds at a branch in Hyderabad. “For four days, the customer was under a ‘digital arrest’ threat and, visibly stressed, attempted to transfer ₹13 lakh,” an SBI official said.
A woman staffer at the branch noticed that the customer was under severe stress. On probing, the customer told her that he received several calls threatening him with a digital arrest threat. “We delayed the fund transfer of ₹13 lakh for over two days. We could convince the customer that he was a victim of cybercrime and alert the cybercrime police, finally preventing the fraudulent transfer,” he said.
With the number of such cyber attacks increasing, several banks have stepped up proactive cyber safety awareness campaigns to educate their customers. While the transfer of money over UPI platforms is capped at ₹1 lakh (aggregate on all platforms) a day, the customers can transfer higher amounts of money over their banking apps.
SBI put up a flexi at most of its branches, giving a list of Top-10 most common tricks used by scammers. The list includes TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) phone scams, where the caller threatens you with suspension of your mobile services, citing KYC (know your customer) details.
The other possible scams in the list included – parcel stuck at customers, family member arrested, get-rich-quick trading, mistaken money transfers, and generous tax refunds.
“Banks have been using advanced AI-driven fraud detection techniques that continuously adapt to emerging threats, identifying anomalies in transaction behaviour as real-time payments and digital transactions grow,” Bibekananda Panda, Senior Economist, State Bank of India, told businessline.
Quick Heal Technologies Limited, in collaboration with the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), launched IB-CART 3.0 (the Indian Banks – Centre for Analysis of Risks and Threats (IB-CART).
IB-CART, established in 2014, has been a cornerstone in fostering information sharing and collaboration among banks to combat cyber threats. The platform supports additional use cases, including malware analysis, empowering banks to proactively mitigate risks.
“Consumer education remains a priority, with awareness campaigns playing a crucial role in fraud prevention, empowering customers as the first line of defence,” Panda said.
While banks are reinforcing defences against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats and frauds, they have been fully integrating with the I4C (Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre) system of the Union Home Ministry, establishing 24/7 helplines, and appointing dedicated officials to ensure swift action.
Published on May 30, 2025
