Can someone just kidnap me and steal all my money online?

General
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Let’s say,

I am a bit paranoid. So let’s assume this worst case scenario.

I have 1 crore in my Net Banking account and 1 crore in my Zerodha account. Now someone kidnaps me, and torture me till I give them my Net banking & Zerodha etc user id & password. And they withdraw all the money? The transfer of money may take some days, but they can keep me for as many days as they want.

Is it that easy to loot money? Can I get that money back somehow? Did something like this happened till now? I didnt hear anything like this.

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It is possible to steal money if they know all the credentials and OTP to perform fund transfer. Never heard of such news before. You could report it as a crime and the authorities will be able to track online transactions.

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Ohh. If I get kidnapped, they can just ask me anything all type of credentials and OTP. So they can steal all of my money. But Can I get it back also?

Is the police allowed to track the money that went out of my account online and recover? But they can withdraw all the money in cash or send it abroad or convert it into crypto and make it unrecoverable right?

Is there something that I can do to limit maximum online transaction or something?

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I suggest you to make use of this platform for asking question regarding Trading, Business etc

Given someone is willing to take the risk of keeping someone captive (which can land them in jail) its an easy way to loot money.

Crores of rupees is looted everyday online. Kidnapping and demanding money is a bit old method but still in practice (They do this only if you have huge money)

Yes there are lots of ways to make the money transfer unrecoverable.

You can limit the maximum transaction Per Day and per Transaction basis. Majority of the banks offer this in their netbanking. (I’m taking about netbanking not debit card transfer or mobile banking because people think all are same)

You can play this game only if they are dumb. If they are smarth then they will pressurize you to call the bank to maximize the limits.

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The scenario that you have mentioned is perfectly plausible. However the following should also be noted.

The kidnapper should be sharp enough to get your mobile phone as well. So in your case, keep one phone where you get the OTP with your family or at home and when you walk around use another phone. Without OTP the kidnappers cannot do the transfer.

When you are getting tortured, do lie about the password as after three attempts the online system will be blocked. They may think, in nervousness you gave them a wrong password. The downside is you will be tortured more.

With regard to trading account withdrawal, not sure if Zerodha would be concerned, but when large sums of money, (If I guess right per day RTGS limit is around 15lack), this will give sleepless night to your Bank RM and he might try to reach you or call you. Be friendly with him so that he will notice the withdrawal

I am sure your family, or friends or someone whom you owe money will miss you and they might report you to the police. So be nice to family and friends. Tell them that in case you go missing after reporting to police, go to the bank and ask them to freeze your account. Write a letter and keep it with them.

On a serious note, these kind of paranoia is natural with few people. It might be fun to read and even more easy for writers like me to make a joke, (apologies, but I just could not resist) but do consult your doctor. Few people cannot travel in AC train in India because of the dark tinting on the windows (now I heard it is better as the window glasses are lighter) and it becomes worst in the night. Claustrophobia.

I know a friend of mine who opens FD at the branch manually and not online as she feared that if her account was hacked, the hacker cannot close her FD online.

So if you have this persistent paranoia and if you dont need so much float money in your account, and if you are a trader, you could place the float money in mutual fund and pledge it. (Not an expert on this aspect but have read many traders doing this).

Disclaimer: My apologies if the above is offensive, but do take it on a lighter note. I am sure nothing of this sort will ever happen. Dont focus too much on this aspect.

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The World is always full with risk everywhere, But the accidents happens with only few peoples.
Broker don’t pay out to third party, they payout to only your mapped bank a/c. bank account transfer is processed after adding payee, the payee a/c with any bank is full of KYC, so the kidnapper has given all his personal details to his banks.any transfer of funds including overseas transfer leave some digital footprints (transaction details), so you & police get the details that to whom you paid the amount.
In many cyber fraud the fund transferred to overseas account, but the cyber cell recovered the same within 4 months. so the kidnapper will be found & jailed if they do such criminal activity.
The person with good asset,money & having a such fear should be relocate in the area where locality is good,so he can sleep ,hangout without tension.
Two suggestions are,
Never keep big fund ideal for more duration, it has risk of cyber fraud, & also local threat ( if he got huge amount after selling big property,local criminals can demand a share in it ),
& Never activate UPI for the account in which big amount transactions are happens.

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Assuming the threat is real, here are some options you can consider:

  1. Open a joint account in a bank and transfer most of your FDs there. You will need ALL the people’s signatures to operate the account. Don’t create an “either or survivor” account when opening the joint account.

  2. Create a trust and transfer most of your assets to the trust. Obviously, you will need to ensure it is not a self-directed trust.

The scenario you talk about used to be common in Assam about 30 years ago. One of my friend’s father was kidnapped for a 5L ransom at that time, by ULFA.

But wouldn’t you rather pay the ransom to ensure u get away with your life??? Personal choice, I guess…

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Frankly your money has already been looted and given as loan to someone else by your bank itself :rofl:. You can might as well tell your kidnappers it’s already been stolen by bank why bother ?

As per fractional reserve banking system when you deposit currency (not calling it as money) to the bank, the bank legally holds 4% and loans the rest out. So in reality your deposit never actually exists, it’s just plain numbers existing in computers Watch this 6:23. Now say recession happens people & bussiness default and bank run happens & banks default, poof your 1cr disappears. Or govt started printing money under QE well your 1 cr becomes 70 lakh because stole the govt stole purchasing power via inflation (they always steal via inflation) :stuck_out_tongue:. Frankly entire FD and bank deposit are under a bunch of companies or individuals paying loans :rofl:.

But realistically you are asking if someone can transfer isn’t it. Well banks take PAN card number (imo they ask everywhere), for withdrawal higher than 50k then 26AS automatically tracks it. Plus if your kidnappers do go to bank to withdraw they would get volley of questions. Cash is trash no one stupid these days to have 1 cr in cash. So the only way is RTGS for high amount as 1cr. In that case within a day you can inform your bank manager and they can reverse it . This is possible and they will also assist along with RBI tracking the criminals.

Now there is one gap, say the criminals are smart, rather than transferring to another account they were able to buy Bitcoin via P2P and they shifted the Bitcoins to another wallet, it’s near impossible to get your 1cr back.

Btw I think you are asking this question what if you accidentally transfer huge sum of money to other account. I did that job while transferring my money from axis bank to bank of baroda as I hold 2 accounts. 5k went to some guy living in a town in Chattisgarh because I typed wrong account number and the bank of baroda never checked IFSC code. I called my bank up and said them this issue they called up the bank of baroda and someone from there called me up verified details and did reverse NEFT and I got back my money. Now I did go to bank of baroda and had a conversation with bank manager he said this happened lot of times and it’s not hard to reverse and recover money. They would reverse the transaction if money is in account else not they might use police and force the receiver to send the money back (this is what they said to me).

For love of God if you are pretty paranoid get a gun and have conviction to pull trigger if need arises too or have personal security. Nothing is guarantee in life , people are confident not because they have 1cr it’s because they have skills and can make 1cr back. What are you gonna do if some socialist guy in govt removed the MRS in RBI and started printing money like anything like Mugabe and you wake up to find why the hell Bananas cost 36 cr. This happened in Zimbabwe. So I hope you sleep well and have faith in your skills & yourself than bank balance or job or anyone.

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images

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if someone did this , they would have to kill you, because this transaction(net banking) is traceable in a investigation.

if this happens , consider yourself dead.

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Worse… You could get kidnapped, keep your money and get killed too :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

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index

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when I was 14 I used to watch crime drama so that I can handle it!
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now that I’m 18, still waiting for kidnappers

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First do one thing. Add total funds to kite. I’ll see how funds won’t get kidnapped by markets. I bet my entire stake for this challenge. Anything. Literally anything. I’m ready.

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You really have 1 crore each, or it’s just an assumption ( a backtest).

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When I was a teenager I thought that this situation will never happen to me. But I’m older now and somehow anxiety is getting much worse so when I look back on my teenage behavior I’m in shock how I’m still alive😂

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This can happen even if you are not kidnapped. Hackers are very smart these days. You have to be smart enough to not share your details with anyone.

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With all our money online, I don’t think we can ever be sure about its safety. If the hackers become smarter than the developers, we will lose everything in one go.

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They can ask for your passwords and even use your fingerprints. Some may not even need you. Their hacking skills would be enough for them to steal your money.

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Well, the good thing is they don’t have to kidnap you for stealing your money. All they need is your unlocked phone and they will be good to go. If you are experiencing any such threat in real life you can ask for police security and even inform your bank about the same. I haven’t heard of any such incident yet but we can never deny the possibility of something like this happening. So stay safe!