As a part of the Reserve Bank of India's customer awareness initiatives, in July 2021 this office had published a booklet 'Be(A)ware' on the modus operandi of financial fraudsters. Encouraged by the positive response received from members of the public as well as different institutions, we take forward the idea of financial education, to be more accessible to those who have just begun their journey into digital financial world and are not so well-versed with the nuances of online financial transactions. This includes people from different ages and education levels such as school children, young adults, semi-literates and senior citizens, irrespective of whether they live in urban, rural or semi urban areas.
Continuing the 'Be(A)ware' series, this booklet 'Raju and the Forty Thieves' is a manifestation of our efforts. The booklet is an easily understandable pictorial depiction of incidents happening around us and helps us to learn how to keep hard-earned money and ourselves safe from fraudsters.
As the name suggests, 'Raju and the Forty Thieves' contains forty such stories providing glimpses of fraudulent events being reported to us and provides simple tips about DOs and DON'Ts. Raju is a typical gullible citizen, and, in these stories, he appears in different characters, some time as a senior citizen, some time as a farmer, sometimes as a happy-go-lucky guy, etc., although with same curly hair always to identify with different walks of life.
Let us make ourselves aware of such modus operandi used by fraudsters and educate those around us to be aware of such financial frauds. The tireless efforts put by the team of RBI Ombudsman, Mumbai-II, Maharashtra and Goa, to spread financial literacy by preparing such booklets during covid period, is gratefully acknowledged. The readers are requested to share their feedback and suggestions, if any, to bomumbai2@rbi.org.in
