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Cyber criminals have been exploiting the government’s directive to link bank accounts with Aadhaar to swindle people in the city.Of the total 550 cases of cyber crime reported at police cyber cell in the city this year, 220 were of vishing in which swindlers posing as officials duping people by tricking them into sharing details of their bank account, credit and debit card, for Aadhaar linking.In most cases, the victims told police that the swindlers knew that their Aadhaar was not linked with their bank account. Officials of the cyber cell said that calls were made either during night or in the wee hours.Of total 550 cases reported from January 1till May 10, besides 220 of vishing, 200 were of fraud through social networking sites, 60 of card cloning, 35 of e-wallet fraud and 35 of phishing cases. Sleuths of the cyber cell also said that 4-5 cases of cyber crimes are registered daily, of which around 50% are of vishing. They chatted on Facebook messenger and befriended the victims before proposing a deal like winning lottery, offering gift and saying that article from a foreign country has arrived but sought money for clearance at customs.In phishing, miscreants email links of fake websites. The email links ask people to register on website and fill details of debit, credit cards.In another online fraud method known as ‘pharming’, some random IPs are Nodal in charge of cyber cell, Abhay Mishra, said that miscreants posed as bank officials and took debit card details from people for linking Aadhaar and then withdrew money. “In some cases, we found that fraudsters had a nexus with bank staff from whom they got data of accounts not linked with Aadhaar,” he added.Cyber criminals also browsed profiles on social networking sites, especially Facebook, to select a target. controlled and whenever people make payments during online transactions, it is rerouted to a fake website. The details filed up in the fake website are used by fraudsters. “Incidents of debit and credit card cloning were also reported. In these cases, a salesperson or staffer takes your card for swiping and also swipes it in a skimmer machine which copies the data from the magnetic strip. The data is used to create a cloned card,” said Mishra.