BENGALURU: Cyber theft is not something new to the world. Ever since banks introduced e-transactions, hackers and cyber thieves have resorted to methods which, in a way have either been completely rubbish or absolutely brilliant (think of all those Hollywood cyber heist movies you loved so much).

The two choicest practices for thieves in the past decade has been to send mails to people either as a prominent person (like the RBI chief or the UN secretary general) or as an authority from the victim’s bank in which he holds the account.  In the former case, claiming to be one of those personalities, the thieves would ask for the person’s bank details with a fabricated story according to which the target had inherited millions of dollars at the behest of a deceased secret admirer who had named him in his will. In the case of the latter, the intruders impersonating the bank, send emails asking the victim to login to their net-banking account in order to rectify some account problems. The vicitms, not doubting any false play, share their details and end up being looted.

Though initially the villains were very successful with their attempts, their methods were soon comprehended and people become more aware about such deeds – the main give away being the “millions of dollars in question” (come on! How can most of us have secret rich and dying admirers?

With such gateways to easy money closing out in all directions, cyber thieves seemed to have come up with new ideas. If truth be told, they are the same ideas but are well scripted and convincing enough for people to easily fall prey.

One of the more recent types of crooks are the income tax scammers who deliberately keep the promised amount relatively lower to make the scam more believable.

The emails demand people to furnish their bank account details in order to receive tax refunds. There are links in the received emails which take you to a fake website of the IT Department from where you are directed to a fake login page for your bank account. Many people, not well versed with internet and online security, fall for this scam and end up losing all their money.

 Cyber Security specialists are working hard to educate people about such dangers. The foremost advice is to ignore any such emails and delete them immediately. People should also save the links of their bank accounts and refrain from accessing external links which are supposedly linked to a bank account. It is very important to keep in mind that nobody except thieves ask for your bank details. Other legal organizations already have such information and would ask you to divulge such information. Even during e-shopping, customers should make sure that they are buying from a trusted e-tailer and it is always better to pay through Cash on Delivery. 

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