IT man cheated of Rs 2.6 lakh by impersonator

Cyberabad police cautioned and advised public to verify through phone calls before they part with their credentials whenever they share with their family members or relatives or friends over social networking sites or mails.

It is suggested to install effective anti-virus software to block cookies asking for re-login to account or for re-entry of details and not to respond to phishing mails or voice-phishing/ vishing calls impersonating banks/bankers.

An IT employee working at Gachibowli approached Cyber Crime Police Station, Cyberabad-West on August 3 and lodged a complaint stating that on Aug 2 , he got a message on Google Chat from his elder brother living abroad asking the details of his Kotak Mahindra account for an emergency. He shared the account details including One-Time-Passwords sent to his mobile number. Similarly, his other brothers and few friends also got messages and they too shared the details. Around 2.6 Lakh rupees were transferred to various bank accounts from their accounts.

Finding something suspicious, he spoke to his brother over phone and was shocked to find that his brother’s email account was hacked and some fraudster impersonating his brother obtained the accounts’ details fraudulently. Basing on his petition, a case was registered and is being investigated into.

Even emails with phishing links asking the recipients to file Income-tax returns resembling genuine portal are being sent by fraudsters, to gather their account/card details.

Remote Access Trojans mimicking the functionality of legitimate remote control programs are installed on the smart phones of the victims sometimes after they get to know some of the account details, to obtain OTPs which are sent as final step of authentication to the customer from the banks, police said a release here today. (NSS)