27 October,2010 08:50 AM IST | | Shashank Shekhar
MNC executive's e-mail hacked by man offering cheap deals
It's that time of the year again when corporates become generous to their clients and dole out freebies.
But executives looking for cheaper deals online must not forget that there are enough snooping frauds, ready to pounce upon them.
Web of deceit: Vikram Singh (above) was duped by a cyber criminal
who used his e-mail id to send out spam mails.
Vikram Singh, who works with an MNC with its office in Noida Sector 11, was looking for cheaper gift options online and he almost lost his job.Vikram barters for the companies met Vishal Jindal over the Internet. Jindal had claimed that he was a wholesale dealer of swanky gadgets.
Jindal offered a lucrative deal to Vikram in which he offered 10 mobile phones and 20 pen drives for just Rs 75,000. Excited with the deal Vikram accepted the deal and paid the money through PayPal. But soon after he realised that he must have met Jindal personally at least once.
"My friends and clients complained that I have sent them spam messages on e-mail and when I tried to log in I got to know that it has been hacked. I immediately informed my seniors and they issued an inquiry. We have also hired a private cyber crime expert to locate the criminal," said Vikram.
"We have informed our clients about how my email was hacked and misused. My company was generous that I have to pay the half of the loss which company had to bear due to me," Vikram added.
According to a cyber crime expert, when Vikram was approached by the fraud he infected his computer with a Trojan which was used to steal data from his laptop and later helped him hack Vikram email ID. "Every year lot of people becomes target of cyber crime but this year cases involving cyber crooks offering cheap gift options have increased manifold. Cyber space is flooded with new offers and discount which may be a bait to fool innocent Internet users," he said.
"Apart from discounts, spammers lure users during the festive season with offers of free goods and services, invitations to play cards online, and can even spoof popular brands to make their emails look more legitimate and enticing," said Jagannath Patnaik, Director, Channel Sales, Kaspersky Lab - South Asia.
"This year there were many who opted for e-rakhis too. It has been seen and it is even my personal experience that the fraudulent mails entice customers with buy-one-get-one-free offers that are not fulfilled. The important thing is to never buy through these emails that offer a link, but to instead go to reliable online merchants directly," Patnaik added.
| Trends in online gifts |
| Compared to last year, the business this year has virtually doubled. Companies that had cut back on gift budgets in the past couple of years are back to generous gifting. Those who were spending around Rs 300 for a gift item last year are spending in excess of Rs 500. |
