Senior citizens targeted most, says Jamshedpur SP

JAMSHEDPUR: Cyber criminals are employing a new method, dubbed ‘digital arrest’, to target people, especially senior citizens, by impersonating police and other officials to extort money online, said Jamshedpur SP Rishav Garg.
The criminals contact their victims, posing as representatives from law enforcement or govt agencies, and accuse them or their family of being involved in illegal activities. “The new method which is being used by the cyber thugs is ‘digital arrest’ and the target group is senior citizens. The criminals posing as police, CBI, ED or income tax officials contact the senior citizens informing them about their or family member's involvement in illegal money transactions. The only remedy to get out of this is to pay the fine online. Fake letterheads and govt stamps are used to prove their genuineness,” said Garg.
SP Rishav Garg warned that the oversharing of personal information on social media makes it easy for the criminals to find targets.
“People have the bad habit of posting each and every photo and detailed information of themselves and their close ones on social media. Such information is easily tapped by cyber goons to target victims. Such incidents are occurring at all places, including Jamshedpur.”
Garg noted that senior citizens and recent retirees are particularly vulnerable since they often have significant savings. The criminals convince them to click on malicious links, compromising their devices and accessing their bank accounts.
“Criminals target senior citizens, those who have recently retired from govt or corporate houses holding good positions as they have a handsome amount in their savings bank accounts as settlement amounts, which can be hacked and siphoned out. Taking advantage of the partial cyber handicap of older citizens, goons tell them to click on dubious links sent on their phones. After clicking on these links, software of mobile phones are getting cloned too, following which goons have full access to the operation of the victim's phone. Before the victims realise, a large chunk of money is removed from their account.”