HDFC Bank to hold more fraud awareness workshops at educational institutions

HDFC Bank has planned to organise more financial fraud awareness workshops at schools, colleges and universities across the country to apprise students of major cyber threats with an aim to build a culture of safe banking digitally.In 2020, the bank had conducted over 1,000 workshops at educational institutions, including schools (X-XII students), colleges and universities, reaching out to around 30 lakh individuals. It has taken an ambitious target of organising over 2000 such workshops in the next few months.

“India has witnessed unprecedented growth in digitisation. Today, younger ones at home are helping in ordering food, medicines and other household goods through multiple apps. We want each household to have one evangelist, who can educate his/her family on precautions, hygiene items while doing online financial transaction. Hence, at HDFC Bank, we have decided to spread awareness at school,college and university levels so that the dos and don’ts are ingrained in our next generation from a very early age,” said Manish Agrawal, head — credit Intelligence and control.

“Also, with young adults embracing digital payments through UPI, wallets, etc, it is essential to create awareness so that they don’t end up clicking unverified links or share confidential banking information while engaging with various e-learning, gaming, entertainment, delivery apps. We wish to build a culture of safe banking digitally and conducting awareness workshops in schools (standard XI-XII), colleges and universities across the country,” Agrawal told FE in an interview.
He said greed, threat and help are being used by fraudsters to create scripts. And, information that is available publicly are being used to persuade a person in sharing his/her confidential information.

In its recent analysis, the bank has come across some interesting insights on cyber frauds. Around 65-70% of such frauds are perpetrated between 7 AM and 7 PM, and around 80-85% of the victims are in the age group of 22-50, which is supposedly the more tech savvy age bracket.

“Fraud can happen only at night — this assumption is not true. Fraud can happen only with senior citizen, illiterate, housewife, etc. — such assumptions are also not true. Fraud can happen at any time with anyone. The age group of 22-50, who are relatively considered more tech savvy, are often the victims. Fraudsters use open source intelligence. We as a nation have seen digital evolution at an unprecedented pace. We have not got time to learn. It’s our collective social responsibility to spread awareness. Awareness is the prevention…As we have embarked on a new journey, we urge people to stop trusting unknown individuals, apps, etc. That would significantly reduce the incidence of frauds,” he said.

from Banking & Finance – The Financial Express https://ift.tt/3488aBf