About 1.9 lakh women in self-help groups across Varanasi district are to be trained to guard themselves against cyber fraud under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), and 35 women are now being prepared as master trainers to take the lessons into the villages.
The women are members of about 16,000 self-help groups in the district. Training centres have opened at cluster level in the development blocks, and the 35 master trainers are being trained there. Once ready, they will hold financial literacy camps at gram panchayat level, according to the mission's plan.
Pawan Kumar Singh, Deputy Director (Self-Employment), said the 35 women being trained as master trainers would go to the gram panchayats and give the 1.9 lakh group members tips on protecting themselves from cyber crime. A start date and the length of the village camps have not been announced.
The reason for the push is the money that moves through these groups. Self-help groups in the district handle crores of rupees in bank transactions every month, and members who lack basic information about how fraud works are easy targets for callers and fake messages. The training will also cover discipline in handling the funds that groups receive under the mission, including the revolving fund, the community investment fund, the vulnerability reduction fund and the livelihood fund.
The lessons are practical. Trainers will explain digital fraud and the so-called digital arrest, the right way to use an OTP, and what to watch for when filling in a cheque. To make the banking part stick, the women will play a version of snakes and ladders built around good and bad banking habits, so that the cost of a careless step is something players see on the board.
Nine kinds of fraud are on the list. The first is the digital arrest, in which callers pretend to be police or officials of a central agency, claim the person is under investigation and keep them on a video call until they pay. No genuine agency arrests anyone over a video call. Then there are phishing messages and fake links that copy bank pages, fake investment and Ponzi schemes promising quick returns, and part-time job offers that pay a small amount for simple online tasks before asking the worker to deposit money.
The other five need just as much care. APK file fraud uses a harmful app file sent over a messaging app, often dressed up as a bill, a notice or an invitation, which can take over the phone once installed. In the boss or CEO scam, a message seems to come from a senior person asking for an urgent payment.
UPI and QR code fraud relies on getting a victim to scan a code or enter a PIN, though a PIN is never needed to receive money. The list ends with extortion and honeytrap calls, and the parcel or courier scam, in which a caller claims a package in the victim's name holds something illegal.
These are not distant threats. On Tuesday, Lalpur-Pandeypur police registered an FIR after a resident lost about Rs 1.36 lakh, including a fixed deposit of Rs 1 lakh, to a caller who posed as a bank employee and asked him to update his KYC details. Station in-charge Atul Kumar Singh advised people never to share bank details over the phone and to call 1930 immediately if they are cheated.
The city's police have been working on the same problem from the other end. Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal last month ordered tighter cyber policing against mule accounts and fake SIM cards, and in neighbouring Chandauli five people were held in a Mughalsarai cyber fraud that targeted victims in Japan.
Anyone who has been cheated online can call the national cyber crime helpline, 1930, or file a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in. Reporting within the first few hours gives banks the best chance to hold the money before it moves on.
For a group member in a village, the Pandeypur case carries the simplest lesson of all: no genuine bank asks for an OTP, a PIN or card details over a phone call, whatever reason the caller gives.
