Knowledge Center

Glossary

• Card Skimming Card skimming uses a hidden device (at an ATM or point-of-sale terminal) to copy your card's data when it's used, often paired with a hidden camera to capture your PIN - enabling a cloned card to be used fraudulently later. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Chargeback A chargeback reverses a card payment through your bank/card network, used to dispute an unauthorized transaction or a legitimate merchant dispute - a real recourse mechanism worth knowing about, distinct from a UPI transaction, which generally has no equivalent reversal mechanism once completed. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Credit Freeze A credit freeze restricts access to your credit report until you formally lift it, preventing a fraudster from taking a loan or credit card in your name using stolen identity details - available in India through each credit bureau individually. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Digital Arrest Scam A 'digital arrest' scam involves a caller impersonating police or a regulator, claiming you're under investigation and must stay on a video call and transfer money to 'prove innocence' - a real, well-documented scam pattern, not a genuine legal procedure. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Fake Investment App A fake investment app mimics a real trading/investment platform's look and feel while having no genuine connection to any regulated exchange or broker - money deposited goes directly to the scammer, often with a fabricated dashboard showing fake, growing 'returns.' Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Identity Theft Identity theft uses your personal information - PAN, Aadhaar, bank details - without your consent, often to open fraudulent accounts, take loans in your name, or file false claims, with the real damage sometimes surfacing only much later. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Loan App Fraud Unregulated instant-loan apps often extract excessive personal data permissions at installation, then use that access for harassment-based recovery tactics far beyond what any regulated lender is permitted to do. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Malware-Based Banking Fraud Malicious apps disguised as legitimate software can silently capture banking credentials, intercept OTP SMS messages, or log keystrokes - infection commonly happens through installing an app from outside official app stores. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Money Mule A money mule is someone who unknowingly or knowingly allows their bank account to be used to transfer proceeds of fraud - even an unwitting participant can face serious legal consequences, not just the actual scammer. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• National Cyber Crime Helpline (1930) 1930 is India's dedicated national helpline for reporting financial cyber fraud, designed to coordinate quickly with banks to freeze fraudulently transferred funds before they're withdrawn - speed in reporting matters more than almost anything else. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• OTP Fraud OTP fraud tricks you into sharing a one-time password over a call, message, or fake form - the OTP itself is real, but sharing it hands a scammer the exact authorization needed to complete a transaction on your account. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Phishing Phishing is a fraudulent email or message designed to look like it's from a legitimate institution, tricking you into clicking a malicious link or entering credentials on a fake site. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Ponzi Scheme A Ponzi scheme pays existing investors using money from new investors, not from any genuine underlying business activity or investment return - it collapses once new money stops flowing in fast enough to pay earlier promises. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Pyramid Scheme A pyramid scheme's actual product is recruiting new participants, not selling anything of independent value - each new member pays to join, and money flows upward to earlier recruiters, collapsing once new recruitment slows. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Romance/Investment Scam (Pig Butchering) This scam builds a long-term romantic or friendly relationship online purely to eventually introduce a fraudulent investment opportunity, exploiting weeks or months of built trust before the actual financial ask ever appears. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Screen-Sharing Scam A screen-sharing scam convinces a victim to install a remote-access app - often under the guise of tech support - giving the scammer live visibility (and sometimes control) of the victim's device while banking apps are open. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• SIM Swap Fraud SIM swap fraud tricks or bribes a telecom provider into transferring your phone number to a SIM card the fraudster controls, giving them access to your OTPs and effectively hijacking your digital banking identity. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Two-factor authentication requires a second, independent proof of identity beyond just a password - typically an OTP or app-based approval - meaning a stolen password alone isn't enough for a fraudster to access your account. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• UPI Fraud UPI fraud almost always exploits user trust or confusion, not a flaw in UPI itself - fake collect requests, QR code tricks, and screen-sharing scams are the common patterns, not a hacked UPI system. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety
• Vishing Vishing is phishing conducted over a phone call rather than email or SMS - a scammer posing as a bank official, government agent, or tech support, pressuring an immediate action over voice. Fraud Protection & Financial Safety