In this era of smart Internet, most of us work online. Be it online banking, or shopping, or gaming, or business or use of social media. Amid the heavy use of internet, there is also rise in the cybercrime.
The cybercriminals find different ways and means to loot people online. Some people, though are educated but fall prey to the cyber fraud. Lakhs of rupees are withdrawn from their bank accounts in a blink of eye.
Cyber expert Prasant Kumar Sahoo said that the cybercrime increases every year. As per one of the reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), every year there is six per cent rise in cybercrime. Even India reports a cybercrime in every 10 second. Therefore, we need to make ourselves aware of it and take precautions. There is no solution if you go to the police after falling prey to the cybercrime.
There are mainly six ways through which the cybercriminals loot money and data from people. They are:
1) Call forwarding fraud,
2) Loot in the name of army,
3) Romance scam/ Nigerian fraud scams,
4) Banking Fraud,
5) Job scam,
6) WhatsApp Nude Video Call scam,
1) Call forwarding fraud:
• If you give phone to a stranger out of pity to help, he may do the Call forwarding fraud. He may do the Call forwarding fraud by using different forwarding codes (like *, 401* and so on). In this way, he gets access to all your calls. By doing this, he would hack your WhatsApp.
How do he hacks your WhatsApp?
• They will install WhatsApp in a mobile phone. When asked for the number, he/she would put your number and get the OTP over a phone call and by using the OTP, they get access to your WhatsApp.
• Once he gets the access to your WhatsApp group, he starts seeking monetary help from the group member. When anyone makes a call to find out the truth, the call will be received by the hacker only because of the Call forwarding fraud.The criminal also can access your Gmail, Facebook, bank accounts.
Solution of Call forwarding fraud:
• First of all, you should not give your phone to anyone in the crowded place. If you want to help anyone, then you ask him/her to say the number and dial yourself and put the loudspeaker on so that you too can hear it.
• If you have fallen prey to the call forwarding fraud, you can go to the call setting of your mobile phone and disable the Call forwarding option. Or you also can call to the telecom company and ask them to disable the Call forwarding option.
• Everyone should do the two-step verification of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram to keep it safe.
2) Loot in the name of army:
• As people have faith in Indian army and trust them blindly, the cybercriminals take advantage of this and use the Indian Army’s logo, name, uniform and other things to loot people online.
• They give add on social media saying they want to sell all their belongings following their transfer to a different location. They will display photos of new electronic items like freeze, AC, TV and other things and sell them any very low price. At a time people give them advance thinking of getting very good quality or branded things at cheap prices. After getting advance money from several people, they get vanished.
• In the same way, when you see ads on the OLX, you want to book it by giving some advance money. And to get money from you he/she will send you a QR code. If you scan the QR code and put the password, you will start losing money. They will also send message to receive money and once you accept, your money will be deducted from your bank account.
Solution of Loot in the name of army:
• Never scan the QR code to receive money.
• Never confirm any message asking for your confirmation to get money.
• You must keep in mind always that you never need to put your pin while receiving money. It is only to send money you have to put your password/pin number.
• The best way to finalize the deal to give or accept money is to meet a person personally and receive the money or give him.
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3) Romance scam/ Nigerian fraud scams:
• It is been six to seven months that the romance scam/Nigerian frauds scam have come to the light. You will see DP of several beautiful girls on the Facebook or matrimonial sites. When you are swayed away with their beautiful DPs and start chatting with them, they will identify themselves as the residents of UK. They also may make WhatsApp calls to you because the UK phone numbers are easily available in the internet.
• After talking to you they will win your trust and show off their luxurious life style. They will say you that they are coming to India or may send you very expensive gifts. A week later, you will get phone calls and the caller will identify himself as the employee of the custom department and inform you about the gift and ask you to pay some money to receive the gifts. They will send you Google Pay number or bank accounts to send money. Once you send the amount, you will get call again from them asking for the processing fees. In this way they loot huge amount of money.
Solution of Romance scam/ Nigerian fraud scams:
• Never expect money from your online friends. This is called Nigerian Fraud because it is done by the Delhi-based Nigerians. They dial from the UK numbers being in Delhi and it is their friends who call from the custom department.
4) Banking Fraud:
• You will get SMS or some links on your mobile threatening you of losing some services if you do not follow them. When you click on a link you will be directed to a fake site of a bank and if you put your user ID and Password, the cybercriminals get access to it and loot money from your bank accounts. They also can break your Bank Fixed Deposit (FD).
Solution of Banking Fraud:
• You should never install apps like AnyDesk or QuickSupport, through which the criminals can loot money from your bank account very easily.
• One should not keep huge amount of money in the saving account. Because they are very unsafe and also there is no interest for it.
• Visit the offices personally to solve your problem.
5) Job scam:
• Cybercriminals collect data of the youth from different job sites, contact them and cheat them of thousands of rupees. At a time they create fake websites of the central government and to win the trust of the job seekers they give advertisements in the local newspapers. Once you apply, you will get call from them saying that you have been selected and you need to pay money for the processing fee and uniforms.
Solution of Job scam:
• Never ever pay money in advance to get a job. You need to visit the office or company physically and then give money.
6) WhatsApp Nude Video Call scam:
• WhatsApp Nude Video Call scam has become a trend now. You will get WhatsApp message from an unknown girl. When you reply and give permission for a video call, a nude video will start playing and as you will be watching the caller will take a screenshot and start to blackmail you and demand heavy amount of money from you.
Solution of WhatsApp Nude Video Call scam:
• Never reply to unknown person and allow them to make video calls.
• In case when you have fallen prey to the WhatsApp Nude Video Call scam, you have to lock your WhatsApp account so that the scammer cannot get details of your contacts.
Here are some general tips one must take to stay safe from online fraud:
• Never discuss about financial matter with any unknown person.
• Install the true caller app so that you can identify the spam calls.
• Use two step verification always for all your social media accounts.
• Never save your bank account, PAN card, Aadhaar card, debit cards and credit cards.
• Never click on any unknown links.
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