Almost 80% of cybercrime frauds occur due to lack of cyber hygiene, claim police and cyber experts.
‘A lot of people do this while dining out, they give their debit card and PIN to the waiter while making payments. Giving out PIN so easily make them vulnerable to frauds. If there is a hidden skimmer in the swipe machine, their personal information is compromised,’ said Sai Krishna, chairperson of Global Cyber Security Forum and a city-based cyber security expert.
The police say that, in most cases, the victims are lured by the offenders and give away sensitive information to the accused, The Times of India.
“In one-time password frauds, most of the victims get scared when the offender pretending to be a bank official says their ATM card will be blocked. We have been spreading awareness, even bank officials have warned people, that one should never share their OTP. No bank official will ask for OTP number. But people still give away their information. Such fraud cases can be prevented only through awareness among the people,” said S Harinath, ACP, Cyber Crimes Rachakonda police.
The report also added that recently, four persons were nabbed by Rachakonda police for misusing personal details to get credit cards. The accused persons were working in a staff recruiting company and collected PAN card and Aadhaar card photo-copies of persons who had earlier applied in the company.
They altered some information and printed forged details on plastic cards, which looked similar to actual PAN and Aadhaar cards. Using the information, they applied for credit cards. The case came to light when the bank officials reached the home of one of the victims to clear a credit card bill.
Experts said that attackers can compromise targeted mobile phones and spy on victims just by sending an SMS due to an undetected critical vulnerability in SIM cards.
“People give away their email IDs and phone numbers easily. Another issue is not changing passwords periodically. There are several individuals’ data and information available and sold in the Darknet. Some old data on their email addresses and passwords are also sold for money. The fraudsters are aware that most people do not change their passwords for several years. This makes the job of the hacker extremely easy,” said Krishna.
