Sources : Pune Mirror

Date of Publishing:08/07/2010

Location:Pune

Most of us get emails telling us we’ve won a lot of money and asking us for personal details. Mirror does some digging to find out how the fraudsters reach us and how we can protect ourselves

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

• Fraudsters start with acquiring email addresses in bulk.

The mass mailing software Email Hunter comes in handy here, which the fraudsters use to crawl into a particular domain and get email addresses.

• Emails are then sent to the all the email ids found.

Sometimes, when the fraudsters want to target a particular domain of people they enter the key word of any job, marriage or company portal and get the relevant list of email addresses.

IT’S A JACKPLOT!

The fraudsters make deceptive claims or requests to pull you into their trap by:

• Stating that you have won a huge amount of prize money through a lottery. It is one of the methods that used to dupe people over the internet and it costs victims around the world millions of dollars every year.

• Taking the identity of an acquaintance and sending a mail saying he/she has been robbed while travelling and needs financial assistance.

• Lure you with a fantastic job offer. They even promise jobs abroad .

• Using matrimonial sites.

• Mailing you, saying you have received an inheritance or gift.

• Phishing. This is a technique by which the fraudsters hack your email id. They create a replica site or link of the parent site. When you click on the link, you are asked for your username and password. When you upload these, they do not go to the concerned company, but to the fraudsters’ server.

CASE STUDY

26-year-old Amit Kadam registered with a matrimonial site to find a match for himself. Instead of a partner, he found a Nigerian fraudster who milked him of Rs 70,000 along with her ‘associates’. The girl, calling herself Juliet Gukama, contacted him and said she was interested in knowing him better. She then told him that an amount of $3.7 million had been stashed at an account in her father’s name with the Bank of Africa and asked for his help to get the money transferred in her name. She sent the bank details along with the email id of the transfer officer and asked Amit to contact him.

A few weeks later, Juliet emailed again saying she had managed to get the money and offered to gift him $500,000. Amit paid $225 through Western Union Money Transfer and was promised the money would be sent through courier. In March 2008, he was asked to open an account with Bank of Africa in Senegal and then asked to come to Mumbai with $1,850, for customs duty.

Amit said, "I went to Mumbai with a friend to meet one Adams and Tukur, but they did not turn up at the airport. Adams emailed me to make the payment or lose the money. I deposited the money in the account of one Moinuddin Kazi in Bank of Baroda in December 2008 and sent an sms to Tukur. I also mailed the payment slip to Adams and Tukur. I was then asked to meet Tukur and a representative named Fiyane in Mumbai. I went to Mumbai but they did not show up. Instead, they called saying the money was stuck for want of an Anti Terrorist Certificate and asked for $15,000 to pay off customs officials. Then I knew I was being milked."

PROTECT YOURSELF

• Ignore the lottery emails.

• If you get an email from a known person’s email address asking you for money, verify it.

• Do not click on links in mails, texts or pop ups

• Do not upload your user name and password on any link sent in a mail or text even if it is from a known company website.

• If you get an SMS or a an email from a bank asking you to upload your username or password, ignore it. Banks never ask for these details.

Web Resource for e Paper(For the above mentioned article): http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Search&Key=PMIR/2010/07/08/2/Ar00200.xml&CollName=PMIR_ARCHIVE_2009&DOCID=121470&Keyword=%28%3Cmany%3E%3Cstem%3ECyber%3Cand%3E%3Cmany%3E%3Cstem%3ESecurity%29&skin=pastissues2&AppName=2&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T