Tricksters get innovative, utmost caution necessary

PUNE: With cyber fraudsters resorting to increasingly innovative tactics to separate people from their hard-earned money, experts have advised caution, especially when it comes to online transactions.
Recently, city-based business Ankush Warulkar lost Rs69,000 while applying for a loan online — all he did was to click on a ‘KYC verification link’ and initiate a transaction to pay a Rs10 “application fee”.“I just entered my OTP and all along, the amount shown was Rs10. However, I was shocked to see a debit of Rs69,000,” Warulkar said.
Police said the bank to which the money was transferred has been identified. “We have written to them, seeking the freezing of the credited account, but in all likelihood, the fraudster has bounced the money off at least three-four accounts. Recovery, if even possible, could take time,” the investigating officer said.
Experts said the fact that the fraudsters manipulated the transactions points to a flaw in the bank’s system. “It is in all likelihood, a compromise in the bank’s back-end, using malware or by introducing phishing/ probing patches into the bank’s servers,” a cyber security expert working for a bank said.
In another incident, city-based Kapil Arora had listed a camera for sale on an online marketplace. He was contacted by a buyer.
“The ‘customer’ he said he could credit the payment directly to my bank account and forwarded a QR code for verification. He said Rs1 would be deducted for this purpose,” Arora said. When Arora scanned the code, he lost Rs14,000.
Cyber experts said there was no need to scan any QR code when expecting a payment, and urged people to avoid such scams.