RBI cautions public against phishing by entities using its name

The Reserve Bank on warned public of unauthorised entities that buy or sell old banknotes and coins on commission. The bank cautioned people to not fall prey to their tactics on Wednesday.

The RBI said in a statement that it has come to its notice that a few entities are illegally using the name/logo of the Reserve Bank of India and seeking charges/ commission/ tax from public for buying and selling of old banknotes and coins through online/ offline platforms.

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“It is clarified that Reserve Bank of India does not deal in such matters and never seeks charges/ commissions of any sort. Reserve Bank of India has also not authorised any institution/ firm/ person etc to collect charges/ commission on its behalf in such transactions,” it said.

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RBI advised the public to remain vigilant and not to end up falling prey to frauds like these who extract money illegally using the bank’s name.

The RBI statement comes as the trade of old coins and banknotes with transactions are on a rise. So much so, that people have been falling prey to transactions worth lakhs of rupees. Platforms, including eBay, Quikr, and CoinBazzar, let people buy and sell old and rare currency. However, as these are merely e-commerce sellers, the authenticity of the transaction is missing. There is no guarantee that one would not be scammed because these platforms are only responsible for bringing buyers and sellers of different goods together. The rest depends on the buyer to ensure that they enter transactions that are authentic and not fraudulent. After all, the onus of the safety of their hard-earned money lies with them and not the e-commerce platform.