Supermarket chain complains about fake message in its name

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The Powai police are on the lookout for a social engineering attacker who tried to dupe people in the name of DMart, the supermarket chain.

A source said Siddharth Ghaitadke, an area manager of Avenue Supermart which owns DMart, approached the Cyber Police Station in Bandra Kurla Complex on June 11, and filed a complaint against an unidentified social engineering attacker. Ghaitadke said on June 10 many of the market's customers turned up at its Powai outlet to avail of Rs 2,500 from a gift voucher. The staff was clueless about the vouchers, but a few customers showed them a text message which read, 'DMart is giving a free Rs 2,500 shopping voucher to celebrate its 17th anniversary. Click here to get your http//dmartindia.com/voucher'. A few customers also inquired about the message over the market's landline number through the day.

According to the source, the complainant said that staff had to take extra efforts to make customers understand that the market did not circulate any such messages, and the message was fake. An FIR was also registered with Powai police station. Ghaitadke told mid-day, "We approached the Cyber and Powai police and filed a case against an unknown person. We have also released a disclaimer saying this message is fake, no such shopping vouchers have been announced. The company will take legal action."

Data or money
Sanyog Shehar, a cyber expert, said such attackers create a clone of the original website. They then circulate such messages, and if anyone clicks on the link, they get directed to the cloned website. The attackers either steal sensitive data or they ask the person to deposit a certain amount to avail the discount. He said, "These attackers are very smart, they name the cloned website with a minor spelling change, which doesn't register in the customer's eyes. One can always check the original website to confirm such vouchers."

Zone DCP N D Reddy said the investigation is on.

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