30 June,2009 09:37 AM IST | | Imran Gowhar
Police receive at least four phishing cases every week. The latest is from a businessmen who lost Rs 49,000
A businessman living abroad is the latest victim of the phishing.
Girish C Rath realised that Rs 49,900 was 'withdrawn' from his account without his knowledge.
The Cyber Crime Police receive four phishing cases every week, on an average. A majority are reportedly related to Axis Bank.
Rath was unable to recollect whether he had disclosed his account details in reply to any of the spoof emails.
"I informed Axis Bank about the fraud and they asked me to give them a written complaint. I could not file the complaint immediately as I was abroad then. I reported the matter to the bank authorities recently, when I came to the country," Rath said.
The Cyber Crime Police have appealed to online banking customers to be extremely careful with spoof emails and fake websites that prompt users to disclose their personal details.
u00a0"The customers should double check with the bank to ascertain whether the mails are genuine," a senior officer said.
"Since the mail is randomly sent to customers, 10 out of 100 fall prey to such mails, and this enables the hackers to make cash transactions involving lakhs of rupees," he added.
Tracking such transactions is a difficult task as the hackers create multiple online accounts.
"Once the money is credited, it automatically gets transferred to different accounts within minutes," the officer said.
"We have alerted the banks and they are offering online services to stop the menace. Despite several reminders and alerts from the bank, many still fall prey to phishing," he added.
OTHER CASES
Case 1: Lokaprakash, owner of a hardware company in Mattikere, received an email from 'Axis Bank', seeking account details for upgrading the services. Lokaprakash told the cyber crime police that he had provided all the details including PIN number.
"Two days later I received a call from the AXIS bank officials asking whether I received a mail from the bank. I told them that I had got a mail and provided all required details. To my shock, they said that it was a spoof email, and the hackers had withdrawn Rs 16,000 from my account," Lokaprakash said.
"I checked with the bank and found that the amount was transferred to an account belonging to one Abasaheb Arjun Pagre in Axis Bank Mumbai branch," Lokaprakash said.
Case 2: Dipti Prakash Das, a software engineer, lost Rs 25,000 in a similar fashion. According to her she also received an email claiming to be an official mail from AXIS Bank. She provided all the details without giving a second thought. The incident came to light when she received a mobile alert saying that Rs 25,000 had transferred to the account belonging to one Santosh Janardhan Pradhan of Mumbai.
"I immediately checked with the bank officials and came to know that it was a fake email," she said.u00a0
