Pune: On December 18 last year, a 45-year-old woman working in a private company in Kothrud received an email from the director of a German company they were in business with. The email stated that the company from Kothrud should transfer Rs 23.9 lakh for a business deal. While the woman took the email to be from a genuine source, she was unaware that the email was spoofed, costing the company Rs 23.9 lakh. The woman then approached Alankar police station and lodged a case of cybercrime against the unidentified person.
In another similar incident, a 40-year-old woman lodged a case with Chatuhshrungi police station after she was cheated of Rs 40 lakh through an email spoofing scam. The woman, who works in an electrical company, purchases material from Taiwan and the payment communication would take place through emails. The Pune-based company received a spoofed mail from a Taiwan company for transfer of funds of Rs 40 lakh. The funds were transferred, but later, the Pune-based company found that it had been cheated.
The above incidents show the importance of ‘email-identities’, which is a form of data used by fraudsters to launch their attacks.
Speaking about the modes and sources fraudsters use to collect data before launching their attack, an official of the Cyber Crime Cell of the city police said the department receives complaints of cybercrime like matrimonial fraud, job fraud, insurance frauds, debit/credit card frauds, online shopping frauds and others.
“A fraudster can collect data from matrimonial sites in case of matrimonial frauds and similarly from job sites one can get details of job seekers before launching their attacks. In one such case we found that the fraudster had set up a fake company on a job portal to look for job seekers to cheat them.
Similarly, many senior citizens get trapped in lottery frauds and Nigerian scams. Fraudsters are well aware of email ids of these people which becomes easy for them to launch their attack, added the official.
Cyber experts said that stakeholders collecting data of people should have a data confidentiality agreement so that there is no misuse of people’s data. The experts added that many mobile applications are collecting mobile data of people which can be used in wrong ways and can prove harmful.
Cyber expert Anil Raj of Cybervault Securities Solutions Private Limited said it is true that fraudsters are alert and active on the Internet to collect people’s data to launch their attack. “With rising number of cybercrime incidents we should be aware and take steps to protect our data. Now as we are bound to share our information on job portal or matrimonial site we have to rely on these stakeholders for data confidentiality,” added Raj.
Another cyber expert, Niranjan Reddy, who is also founder of Netconclave System, said, “While we are bound to provide our correct information to various agencies, we are at the mercy of third person to protect our data and keep it safe. That is the reason the data protection bill is coming into the picture.”
Cyber expert Raj said people should adopt basic practices to keep their data safe. “For instance when we share our business card which contains our phone number and email id we should be keep a list with us of people who we have shared our data. Internet is a platform which is continuously asking for your data and so there is need for awareness in people,” added Raj.
