Cyber Crime: How to protect yourself?

Imagine you are homemaker who just got some time for herself after finishing off your routine work and while browsing on your phone you see an ad which promises lucrative money for easy work from home, after clicking on the ad, you are taken to a WhatsApp/Telegram group and you realize that you fell into a trap only after losing all the money.

Another real-life example, you are searching for the customer care number of a popular home appliances company and dial the number from google, after a while you realize that instead of connecting you with the customer care of the company, it connected you with cyber criminals

These are just some examples of the new age crimes which are happening every day around us and with the emergence of AI, such crimes are expected to rise manifold. The only way we can protect ourselves is by awareness.

Hello and welcome to the new age world of crimes- Cybercrime. Any crime which uses laptop, internet and mobile phones to steal, siphon, or rob money from innocent people is (in simple terms) called cyber crime

There are many different ways adopted by cyber criminals to scam people and steal money from them and I am going to list some for your awareness:

1. OLX Ad Fraud– This is undoubtedly the most common and widely reported cybercrime. You need to sell something and post an ad in Olx, immediately after posting the ad you will receive message in Olx that someone interested is in buying your product and has offered the money you had asked for. The person will ask for your mobile number and will call you expressing his/her interest. The prospective buyer will now tell you that he/she is going to make the payment and will collect the item the next day. You feel lucky that your item is getting sold so quickly and without any bargain, you are happy now. Then you will receive a QR code on your WhatsApp, and once scanned, money will be debited from your account immediately. You call the person again, and the buyer will now apologize for the mistake, saying it happened in mistake and he/she will return your money. You will be told that you will be sent Rs 100/- to check if the money is transferred or not and the rest will be sent in the second transaction, you get the promised Rs 100/-, and you inform the buyer, the next moment you again receive a QR code and once scanned, money is debited from your account again and this cycle goes on till the scammer has emptied your account

• Online Job Fraud– The second most widely adopted modus operandi by the scammer is the Online Job Fraud. You see an ad for online work from home in Facebook/Instagram, once you click on the ad it takes you to a WhatsApp number or a telegram account (usually WhatsApp is the first step and telegram is the second step since most smartphone users in India have WhatsApp on their phone). Once you ping the WhatsApp number, the person on the other side will introduce himself/herself as Media Agency Recruiter and you will be given simple task of liking a video or product in social media (Sharechat, etc.) Then you will be asked to download Telegram and contact another person for payment. The second person will give some more tasks of liking the video and will pay you around 200/- to 300/- Rs. You are now excited to earn more and ask for more work which give more money. It is then the trap has started working in favour of the criminals. You will be taken to another Telegram group which will be designed more like a training group where you will see other users (btw the other users are also part of the same gang) and they will share a URL link, user Id and Password for each member. Now, you will be asked how much money you want to recharge/top up. Usually it first starts with 12,000/- rupees and you are promised after completing the task, you will get 3000/- profit on it. You complete the recharge, then you are asked to do a task of buying crypto currency in 5 minutes on the website which was shared earlier. Then you will be told that you made a mistake and your account has been frozen, and now you need to top up for 24,000/- to unfreeze the earlier money plus the profit and the same cycle will continue till they rob you of every penny. Every time people are given a task and told to complete it within 5 minutes, and they will tell that you made some mistake and your account has been frozen. The victim is tossed from one telegram group to another. Money is often asked to be deposited in some back account and once it is credited, scammers will delete the bank account details from the group.

• CBI/Income Tax/ED/Intelligence Bureau/Money Laundering Fraud– You will get a call and the person on the other side will tell you that he/she is calling from CBI/ED/IB/Income Tax and your name has appeared in a confidential investigation of a money laundering case and they are coming to arrest you. The set up is designed in such a way that criminals make a video call with the victim and a conference room is shown with 6-8 people impersonating as officers from CBI/IB/ED etc. The victim is now afraid of getting arrested and is asked for money, then money, and more money. The scammers warn the victim from hanging up, and keep him/her on call continuously for 24-36 hours. It’s called digital arrest where the victim is not allowed to talk to their family members, not allowed to eat or use the washroom. Scared, mentally exhausted and pressurised, the victim is unable to think of contacting the police or telling the family members, is robbed of every penny.

• Deepfake Video/Audio– You get a call and is told that the call is from the police, and one of your family members (spouse, son, daughter) was recently involved in a crime and is in the police custody. You are able to hear the crying voice of your loved one, and asked for money in return to release them. You realize that you have been scammed only after you contact your family member, but it generally happens when the scam has already taken place

I have mentioned just some of the widely adopted methods of cyber criminals to raise awareness among people. But the real questions now arise is, how do we protect ourself??

How to protect yourself from cyber crime

1. Use 2 phone numbers– It is always a good practice to keep 2 different numbers. One number should be kept only for bank related activities and the second for communicating with people- calls, social media, WhatsApp etc. Also, never share your banking phone number with anyone else especially strangers
2. Don’t trust ads promising high return for work from home/crypto currency, share market etc– Earning money is not easy, and don’t get lured by ads on social media promising high returns for easy work from home, crypto currency or stock market investments. Whatever you do, do your own proper research before going ahead. Don’t trust strangers contacting you through social media like WhatsApp/Telegram/Facebook

• Never scan QR code shared by strangers- If you receive any QR code which has been sent to you by strangers on social media, it’s time to be careful. Don’t scan and block the person’s number immediately. Remember, we can only save ourself from becoming a victim is by being alert and applying common sense

• Call from CBI/IB/Income Tax- If someone calls you and tell you that he/she is calling you from CBI/IB/ED, then don’t be scared, disconnect the call, block the number and contact your local police station. There is nothing to be scared of if you have not done anything wrong

• Deepfake Calls- Even if you hear the voice of your loved one on a phone call from stranger, don’t fall prey. Disconnect the call immediately, and contact your family member directly and chances are he/she is just doing fine

• Get Help- In most cases, it has been observed that the cyber criminals successfully managed to cut off the victim from their family. Don’t do that. Always talk to your family, and friends. Get help, communicate

• Report cybercrime as soon as possible- If you have fallen victim to cybercrime, then report it with National Cyber Crime Cell/National Cyber crime reporting portal as soon as possible. The sooner you report, the higher the chances of money recovery. You can report it by calling at their helpline number 1930 or by registering a complaint at https://cybercrime.gov.in/

I hope the article was helpful, if you need any more information about cyber crimes or want to share your feedback then feel free to mail us at contactus@jeevansutra.com