Today I received a call from an alleged SBI agent asking if I wanted to activate my ATM card. I had received a similar call a few months back where the person claimed to be an SBI agent calling from Delhi headquarters and that my ATM card got accidentally blocked and they were trying to get the issue fixed. For that they needed my ATM card number. But that fateful day, the conversation could not go on as I was outside my home and had left the card at home. Worried about the call, I rushed back home to check my ATM card which worked fine. When I traced the number using truecaller, it revealed no user name but showed the origin to be from Bihar.
But today was a different game. I had just returned home from my work and then a similar call came up. (Mobile record showed the call came from 75493 00873)
As the woman called, and talked in a similar format as the previous one, I asked them to hold on a second and immediately turned on the phone recorder!
The conversation proceeded as usual and I accepted that my card was locked. On asking if I wanted to get the card unlocked, I immediately replied in affirmative. Soon she wanted to have my number and I made her wait for some time to get out my card from the wallet just to make it sound real to her. I gave her a fake number which she immediately wrote down. Then she asked the validity of the card and again I mentioned a date at random. Thereafter she asked about the number at the back of the card were again I picked up a random number!
Once these details were collected, she asked me the FOUR DIGIT PIN NUMBER of my card and I had already selected my set of four digit pin number! Once she had all her details, she asked about my connected number and I said the account had not had its KYC done in recent times. Thereafter, a voice in the background instructs her to keep the call down and that she will soon get back with further details.
Within five minutes I got a second call from the same number and was showered with the filthiest slangs in an extremely enraged female voice but I could not get the time to record the call this time. She was hyper-agitated and before I tried to calm her down and press the record option, she cut the call.
Later I used truecaller to find some information about the call. And again like in the previous instance the service could not give much detail except that the call originated from Bihar.