Today i read a news about netbanking frauds and cyber crimes happening in Pune city which has reportedly been increasing since last year. Right below it there was an article on how a teacher from Wadia College, Pune was spoofed of 91,000 INR.
I was laughing my dash out throughout while reading that article on how he got emails, and how he actually replied and send them the money through bank transfer. No offense, but i personally feel, that was the most stupid thing to have ever happened.
Online activities in India are less as compared to other countries like US, UK and CA. That is also the reason why India falls in Tier 3 regions on Online Advertising Networks. But its changing each month with more and more people setting their business online to extend their reach or simply due to convenient net banking promotions from the banks.
Below are the possible reasons why cyber crimes are increasing in the city.
Knowledge
I remember once i saw an awareness advertisement on TV about Online Lottery frauds; it was then i realized that how could people simply fall for this? Lack of knowledge is one of the most important reasons behind so many netbanking frauds.
I go to bank like at least ones in a month and i have seen so many senior citizens asking questions related to online banking, and those questions at a level of newbies. It looks like they could use some extra knowledge about online safety.
The most common fraud emails claiming to be from the banks are related to account updates, terms and condition changes and activating the blocked account.
Cyber criminals will basically send you an attachment or an .htm attachment to be specific that will direct you to a fake login page. Its called Phishing email that is used to collect personal data from the victim.
Experience
I created my first email ID back in 2004 and since then i have been using it everywhere. Almost all the services online needs registrations and i have been using that same email ID everywhere. I have so many IDs and their Passwords that i have to maintain a separate excel file to store all the login details. My point is that i have been using internet for years and i have learned a lot on internet about Identity Theft and how personal data can be misused.
Beware Online
Now, i get like 45 to 50 fraud and phishing mails daily in Inbox and spam folder. Some of them are under the name of PayPal. PayPal has asked their users to forward any spoof emails to their special ID and i have forwarded them so many spoof emails that yahoo has blocked me from sending any more emails to PayPal. Yahoo now thinks that i am a spammer.
It looks like an experience can come after the basic knowledge about internet and online safety. If that person spoofed of 91K had more internet experience, he was likely to have neglected that email. If an email sounds too dazzling or life chancing, its likely to be a fraud.
If you are a blogger reading this, then you probably know what i mean because you must have had several transactions online. So the chances are you already know about so many scams out there. That’s about having an experience on internet.
If i consider all the emails that i got since 2004, i would probably be the worlds richest guy by now. Here is why…
- I win million dollar worth lottery from MSN and Yahoo every month.
- My email ID was selected to be the luckiest email ID on this planet, so again i won few millions there.
- I happen to inherit all the wealth from all the dead people around the globe.
- Some guy from Nigeria or China wants to do Million dollars worth business partnership with me, i am dazzled.
- Some dude happen to lost his account details so he found me to transfer his Million dollars into my account, wow lucky me.
Awareness
Awareness can come out of an experience and basic knowledge. Again, if you are a blogger you are already aware of those Paid To Click scams that never really pays. And i am going to admit, that there was one time when i tried those because i thought it would be fun to earn just by clicking ads or filling out senseless surveys but only to find out on forum communities that they are scam.
Its obvious that the more you spend time on internet, the more you learn. Forums and other communities are the best place to discuss and learn about such things. Thats where you get to know things from other people experiences and reviews.
Image: Salvatore Vuono - Rogue
People should be made aware of fraud activities online. Just like that awareness advertisement i saw on TV ones, but it was only then. I never saw that kind of an advertisement again.
So to all the newbies out there…
- There is no such thing as Online Lottery.
- Your bank will never ask you for personal details or account updates, you are likely to get only account statements from the bank than anything else.
- Never reply to a strange email and never give all the personal details including bank account details.
- If you are invited for a business partnership or an event, think if you have applied for an event or made any online deals on trusted sites. If you have no such history and yet you are getting those emails, don’t fall for them like the dude from wadia college. Its likely to be a spoof.
- Always check the email address from where the email is comming from. Most of the times it would be from a random domain.
- Don’t open attachments from unrecognized emails no matter how appealing they may seem.
Really helpful post, there are a lot of misconceptions that the only vulnerable people out there are the old but the types of phishing out there these days are getting really good. I believe we need to have more than one email account and more than one password. LastPass is a good app for your browser which can help with this.