Indians are Frequently Attacked by Phishing Scams

After the incident of an individual's life being hit by a recent phishing attack, it becomes apparent that Indians are more susceptible to cybercrimes like phishing.

It was reported in the third week of March 2010 that Suresh Tewatia, a Noida-based (UP, India) electronic goods supplier was stunned to read an e-mail, which apparently came from his bank. The e-mail states that a sum of Rs 90,000 has been withdrawn from his bank account.

The mail warned that if by any chance Tewatia does not have any idea of this transaction, he should verify his private details to defend against hacking.

Unfortunately, Tewatia obeyed and after seven days, a 'huge amount of money' was missing from his account.

Tewatia has just been a victim of a cybercrime through phishing, which is an inauthentic method of stealing personal details like usernames, Internet banking password and credit card details.

Several months ago, yet another businessman, Pawan Kumar Aggarwal, was hit by a phishing scam and lost Rs 1.66 Crore.

Noida police's Deputy Superintendent of Police R.N. Mishra, who observed their counter-cyber crime investigations, stated that there has been a huge increase in the complaints against phishing attacks, as per the news published by hindustantimes.com in the third week of March 2010.

Sadly, cyber crime has emerged as a profession and the nature of cyber crime is changing fast, ranging from a mere bedroom-bound nerd to the kind of orchestrated gangster, such as a group of phishers launching phishing movements.

Further, the augmentation of the phishing scams is intricately associated with the omnipresent nature of online bank accounts and credit card deals. The security experts observe that with a grip like this on financial data, an attacker can secretly steal online transactions with the user's consent.

Banks also caution customers that they should conduct online banking only through genuine operating system software.

Executive Vice-President for retail liabilities and branch banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Shalini Mehta, stated that regular decent software is packaged with necessary antivirus programs and prompts the user to update the antivirus program, if the system is at danger, as per the news published by The Economic Times in the fourth week of March 2010.

Related article: Indian Financial Industry Facing Rising Online Fraud

» SPAMfighter News - 4/10/2010