Government is directly or indirectly taking number of good initiatives for the benefit of general public, involving all departments & institutions. Whether it may be “Jan Abhiyaan”, “Back to Village” or “RBI Kehta Hai”, all these programs are beneficial with respect to welfare of the people.
The focus of these programs is to involve local public in order to educate people about different government schemes and policies.
With the help of local level secretary panchayat people are assembled at one place in order to have a direct contact with the authorities at the helm of affairs.
These mega events have already proved beneficial to uplift the people’s social, economical & financial position at grossroots level and nourish them in different areas.
As we know that Reserve Bank of India RBI is a regulatory body having an authority to issue bank notes and keep monitoring inflation of country.
RBI is a banker to the government (GOI), the consumer protection through financial literacy and awareness camps is also an important function of this national level institution.
From cheque frauds to large value frauds and now digital frauds, the modus operandi has changed time to time. In case of cheque frauds RBI took measures to control it by introduction of CTS 2010 cheques having more security features. RBI has instructed banks to examine the cheques above threshold say Rs. 2 lacs & above under UV lamp and is in practice so far.
By introduction of these improved security cheque format the clearing houses passed the cheques on images. This was a very important step by RBI in view of clearing of huge volume of cheques on daily basis. Though incidents of large value frauds decreased, still it is a concern.
Reserve Bank of India from time to time circulates instructions to communicate & share the details of unscrupulous borrowers and related parties perpetrating frauds, and emphasises on exercising caution while dealing with them. It is essential to report detailed information to RBI, Department of Supervision.
RBI has initiated a nationwide campaign titled “RBI Kehta Hai” to promote financial literacy and safe banking practices. As part of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” the Reserve Bank of India has launched nation-wide programme to improve the customer awareness.
RBI in collaboration with its regulated entities launched a massive campaign covering all segments of population particularLY in rural & semi urban areas on consumer financial awareness & discipline.
RBI Kehta Hai campaign involves circulating the information about the safe banking to the public through SMS, print & electronic media, hoardings and social media as well. Reserve Bank of India has roped bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan including sports stars for these awareness campaign because of gullible account holders deceived by fraudsters.
The campaign is focusing each particular region hence local languages to understand better. The program emphasises the awareness to the customers on protection against digital & electronic financial frauds covering do’s & don’ts.
The campaign went full swing in J&K and programs were organised across UT involving all the government & private establishments in rural & urban areas. The program aimed to protect the customer’s interests, improve the grievance redress mechanism and mostly the safe banking practices.
At present the banking scenario has drastically changed from traditional banking to digital platform. At the same time money is involved in all the activities in our daily life from medical emergency to airline tickets. In order to have impressive gathering in these programs because of its impact on the whole community, education institutions have a role to play.
These education institutions are providing space in order to accommodate the general public of a particular area including the young generation students & parents.
I also conduct couple of such programs in coordination with local Secretary Panchayat, BDO officials, and District Level Administrative authorities. People from different walks of life participate particularly children & youth of the areas. It has been observed that children are using paid on-line games hence fraud to risks of pockets of their parents. I along with my teams tried to educate children & youth to have safe digital transactions.
People are deceived by unscrupulous elements using social media techniques, fraudulent messages, unknown links, false notifications, unauthorized QR codes besides promising zero interest loans.
Such attempts are known as Phishing & Vishing and fraudulent elements attempt to get confidential details like User ID, Login, Password, One Time Password- OTP, debit or credit card details, PIN, CVV, expiry date and other secret information.
In view of current financial transaction scenario, on-line services, RBI has launched a massive awareness campaign for safe digital banking. RBI has directed customers not to share any confidential information to anyone, do not download any unknown application, check URL/domain, and secure cards by set limit.
At last not the least, in case of financial transactions, financial discipline teaches us that we have a right to know about the debit from your account, similarly you need to enquire about the credit part as well.
In latest trend fraudster deliberately credit your account with some amount and contact you for reversal of entry. Here you need to tackle the issue very smartly by contacting the concerned bank else your entire balance in the account will be at stake.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.