Hyderabad police warn citizens against rising OTP frauds

Hyderabad Cybercrime Police warn of a surge in OTP-based frauds using fake calls, phishing links, SIM swaps, and UPI scams. Citizens are urged not to share OTPs, enable security features, and report suspicious activity to helpline 1930

Hyderabad: The Cybercrime Wing of Hyderabad Police has issued a public advisory warning citizens about a sharp rise in OTP-based frauds.

Officials said cybercriminals were using fake bank or KYC calls, deceptive customer-care numbers, phishing links, UPI collect requests, and SIM-swap techniques to trick victims into sharing OTPs, leading to unauthorised transactions and identity theft.

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The advisory cautions that no bank, government department, e-commerce platform, or delivery service ever asks for OTPs.

Citizens were urged not to respond to unknown calls, messages, or refund or cashback offers and to verify customer-care numbers only through official websites.

Police also advised activating SIM locks, device security features and transaction alerts.

People have been asked to report suspicious incidents immediately to the National Cybercrime Helpline (1930) or through cybercrime.gov.in.

The Cybercrime Police also urged the public to follow official social media handles for timely awareness updates.