DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran falls prey to cyber fraud, questions data security

Former Union Minister and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran took to X (formerly Twitter) to share about how he became a victim of cyber fraud and lost Rs 99, 999 recently. In a long post, he shared that on Sunday, Rs 99,999 was stolen from his Axis Bank personal savings account through a net banking transfer via the IDFCFIRST Bank Bill Desk and all normal safety protocols had been bypassed.

Maran added that he was puzzled how easily personal information could be accessed and security protocols could be breached despite him being tech-savvy and cautious with private data.

“An OTP, the standard protocol for such transactions, was neither generated nor received by my linked mobile number. Instead, a call was made to the account’s joint holder – my wife’s number and the fraudsters had the gall to ask if the transaction had taken place. They pretended to be from the bank but had @cbic_india on their display picture. This confirmed my suspicions and I immediately proceeded to block all activities on my account. What puzzles me is how they accessed personal information and breached security protocols with such ease. This wasn’t a phishing attack nor were any sensitive details divulged. @AxisBank was clueless as to how the attack had happened nor could they give any solid explanation for why the OTP was not required from my number for the transaction to take place,” explained Maran.

The former Union Minister, who had held the Communications and IT portfolio in the UPA government said that when he could fall prey to cyber fraud, ‘what about first-time digital users and senior citizens? Is anyone’s data safe?’
He went on to cite a cybercrime report that showed that financial fraud accounted for 75% of all cybercrimes in India from January 2020 to January 2023.

Maran asked, “Reports of sensitive Aadhaar data being sold emerged as early as 2018. Banks’ data breaches & ransomware attacks have become regular news. For India to excel in the digital world or to emerge as a FinTech hub, we need robust security and government action. What action is the government taking to protect our private data? Will @FinMinIndia & FM release a white paper on this? We need answers and we need them now.”