‘Stop Aadhaar Attack’: Cops share steps to lock biometrics

Kolkata: In an effort to make people aware of ways in which they can safeguard their money from being withdrawn from bank accounts through the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) without their knowledge, the Kolkata Police shared steps in which people can lock their biometrics.

As part of creating awareness using “Stop the Aadhaar Attack” kicker, the Kolkata Police on social media shared that while investigating several recent cases, they came across victims losing their hard-earned money from their bank accounts through AEPS from a distant place, without sharing OTP or PIN or downloading any screen sharing apps.

This is being done with neither an Aadhaar card nor its holder being present at the AEPS centre, according to police. Giving explanation, they wrote that the fingerprint impressions of victims may have been compromised from some source.

“The learning is that all of us must keep the biometrics option locked for Aadhaar authentication through the Aadhaar website or the mAadhaar app,” Kolkata Police shared.

They further explained the process through which people can avail this option. After downloading the app and registering the mobile number linked with Aadhaar, once the profile is created, the user needs to go to My Aadhar and click on ‘Biometric Lock.’

“You may unlock your biometrics from the same app whenever Aadhaar authentication is required, but once the process is complete, make sure to lock them from the same app,” they shared.

Several people have been duped by fraudsters using false information about electricity connections. The fraudsters send messages claiming to cut the electricity connection due to issues with

past payments.

They then ask the victims to connect with another individual over call and dupe them through OTP-sharing or by making them click on a link.

In such cases, cyber experts have suggested that people go through the messages minutely as grammatical mistakes

are usually found in such

fake messages.