Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal on Thursday warned about a rise in cyber frauds amid a massive surge in online transactions during the second wave of the pandemic, and asserted the company is working "relentlessly" and coming out with safety features to ensure customers are not vulnerable to fraudsters.

In an e-mail outreach to customers, Vittal highlighted the modus operandi being adopted by fraudsters and also drew attention to cyber frauds related to digital payments. "With the growing second wave of the pandemic and lockdowns in various parts of the country, there has been a massive increase in online transactions. Unfortunately, there has also been a corresponding increase in cyber fraud," Vittal said.

He said that Airtel has developed an "industry first feature" that is geared towards conducting secure online transactions "without the fear of being duped by a fraudster". "Please note that Airtel does not sell VIP numbers on the phone and will never ask you to download any third-party apps. In both instances, please immediately call 121 to confirm. In fact, I would say when in doubt simply call 121," Vittal advised in his mail to Airtel subscribers.

Cautioning against fraudsters calling customers pretending to be Airtel employees, he said that this could be under the pretext of incomplete Know Your Customer (KYC) form. The fraudster may request the customer to install the 'Airtel Quick Support' app from the Google Play Store to allow them to help. As no such app exists on the play store, when the customer tries to install it, they are redirected to TeamViewer Quick Support App.

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