Beware! Online fraudsters on loose

Beware of cyber criminals as they have prepared phishing mails and others schemes for the festive season. Cyber experts say that there are likely to be more online scam victims during the festive season than at any other time during the year.

According to cyber crime experts, crooks have intensified their attacks online much ahead of the festive season. Experts have warned online shoppers to be cautious of fraudsters who are hunting for potential and vulnerable customers by offering them tempting discounts.

Criminals are encashing on deals and discount atmosphere created by leading online retail giants.

Even the e-retailers have started out sending advisory to check the site they are shopping from. Online stores are urging their customers not to trust random websites with their money, or personal and financial information.

“With the Flipkart Big Billion Days just round the corner, a host of fake offers and discounts are being offered on various fraudulent websites. These offers are being circulated via email, SMS or WhatsApp messages, and have been created with the sole intention of misleading and cheating buyers, by misappropriating the familiar and trustworthy name,” Flipkart said in its advisory.

Criminals become hyperactive in cyberspace during festivals and offer expensive gadgets having whopping market values at dirt cheap prices to customers, who often get carried away by such online gimmicks.

“They are misusing the euphoria created by leading online retail websites. We received over two dozen complaints in the last five days. In most of the cases, attractive deals were offered to customers on emails or social media. These offers are too tempting to ignore,” said Kislay Chaudhary, cyber security analyst and CEO of Indian cyber army.

Clicking on these fraudulent websites might put the user’s computer as well as their personal and financial information in danger.

“Cyber criminals keep a track of recent search trends and offer deals like flash sales, heavy discounts, freebies like accessories, and travel packages. As soon a user clicks these links, it will take you to bogus online shopping sites which could be identical to leading shopping portals. Once the payments are made, these gangs shut the websites and float new ones,” Mr Chaudhary explained.

The special task force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police claims that they have started tracking such fraudulent websites and will soon start cracking down. They claim that around 50 per cent of all the cases registered under the IT Act with it are related to fraudulent sales on Internet or credit card frauds. According to experts, criminals are making several crores of rupees by creating fake websites for less than '10,000 each and connecting it with a payment gateway.

“Hackers link their websites to payment gateways. In all cases, these payment gateways are connected to bank accounts opened by them by producing bogus documents. As soon as a user buys a product, criminals receive the money. They give commission to payment gateways and remain active for a few days. Later, they close the fake websites after duping customers,” additional SP (UP-STF) Triveni Singh said.