Ahmedabad: A phone call promising govt benefits turned into financial loss for women in Rajpar village of Surendranagar district. Pregnant and lactating women enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) were targeted by callers posing as govt officials. Exploiting the victims’ trust and limited digital awareness, the cyberscamsters attempted to extract OTPs from beneficiaries. While most women refused, two lost money from their bank accounts.Around 30 women beneficiaries linked to a local anganwadi centre got calls from the fraudsters under the guise of verifying pending payments under the maternity benefit scheme. The callers told the women that their benefits were yet to be credited. “They said they were calling from Gandhinagar and asked if we had received Rs 3,000 under the scheme,” recalled Aarti Panchala, a 40-year-old anganwadi worker from Rajpar. “They already had personal details of the beneficiaries, which made them sound genuine.”According to Panchala, the callers asked women to share OTPs generated on their phones, under the pretext of completing payment verification. While 28 women refused, two shared the OTPs, leading to unauthorised withdrawals from their bank accounts. Together, the two women lost around Rs 20,000. “For villagers here, that amount is huge,” Panchala said. “It is money meant for household needs, food and healthcare.” Rajpar, with a population of over 4,000, was the site of repeated consumer-awareness programmes conducted by the Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Centre, which adopted the village for such programmes. One such programme focused specifically on cybersecurity and digital fraud. “Because of these sessions, most women were alert and did not share OTPs. They knew that no govt official asks for such information on the phone,” Panchala explained. Cyberfraud linked to welfare schemes is not isolated to Rajpar. Panchala said that during inter-village community meetings, anganwadi workers from nearby Bala village reported a similar incident, in which over 20 women lost money. For some residents, however, awareness came too late. Vaishali Sutani, a 25-year-old PMMVY beneficiary and saree trader from Rajpar, said she lost Rs 20,000 to a scam in Sep, before the awareness campaign was conducted. “They called saying they were checking whether money was deposited,” Sutani said. “They asked if I used PhonePe or Google Pay and then sent me a link. As soon as I clicked it, money got debited from my account.“Sutani later learnt that her phone was compromised, allowing the fraudsters access to her banking details. Box: CERC flags new rural consumer risks As part of its Jagrut Grahak Gam initiative, the Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) runs a consumer awareness programme in Rajpar village of Surendranagar district. As part of various consumer awareness initiatives, a cyberawareness and cybersecurity safeguard seminar where residents were warned against sharing OTPs, clicking unknown links, or responding to unsolicited calls.CERC chairman Sunil Parekh said cyberfraud is increasingly affecting rural India. “Cyber security is often seen as an urban issue, but a large rural population now uses smartphones without adequate digital awareness, making them highly vulnerable,” he said. “In villages, such frauds can wipe out life savings, and once accounts are closed, the chances of recovery are remote.”Parekh added that consumer exploitation in rural areas extends beyond digital fraud. “Expired or near-expiry FMCG products from cities often make their way into rural markets. This makes sustained consumer awareness even more essential,” he said.
