A 35-year-old woman from the Hyderabad city became the latest victim of cyber fraud and ended up losing over Rs. 1 lakh to cyber fraudsters who posing as bank executives, cheated her on pretext of updating her personal details.
The victim received a WhatsApp call from the unidentified scammers, who claimed that she needed to update her bank account details or her transactions could be stopped.
According to the cybercrime police, when the victim was reluctant, the fraudster put her in fear that if the details were not updated, Rs.5,000 would be deducted from her bank account as penalty.
“The fraudster asked her to open her mobile banking account promising to guide her through the process. As soon as she did, the fraudster gained access to her e-mail ID and other details,” said a cybercrime official.
Realising it was a fraudulent call, the victim immediately contacted the bank authorities and raised a complaint. Despite her prompt actions, Rs. 1,08,990 had been deducted from her credit card. Based on her complaint, the cybercrime police booked a case and are investigating.
In case of a cybercrime fraud, Dial - 1930 or visit www. cybercrime.gov.in. In case of any emergency of cyber frauds, call or WhatsApp on 8712665171.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has warned government officials against trusting the caller ID information without verification and divulging sensitive information. In the advisory, the cyber security body said cyber criminals may impersonate trusted entities to launch a "vishing" attack.
"Attackers may impersonate trusted entities, such as senior government officials, law enforcement agencies, or technical support personnel," the advisory issued recently by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) said.
The severity of the communication has been categorised as "high".
The body said the attackers can manipulate the caller ID information to create the impression that the phone call was coming from a legitimate number.
In the advisory, the body said there had been an increase in the number of vishing attacks against government officials. These attacks have been used to acquire confidential information and gain unauthorised access to official systems".
The Cyber Security Council and Immersive Labs, the leader in people-centric cyber resilience, has announced the successful completion of their recent Dubai Cyber Drill that reinforced UAE enterprises' cybersecurity posture against Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) threats.
The event included attendees from 25 major organisations representing various sectors - from financial services and telecommunications to healthcare and government - and closed with an awards ceremony.
A cybersecurity expert said that there is a new threat emerging with QR codes that carry ransomware and other viruses.
One of the malicious attack vectors now is people will go into restaurants or see display windows and other posters where it says scan this QR code, and they’ll basically replace it with a QR code that if you actually click on the link, it will download a malware for you.”