E-MAIL SPECIAL...Email Fraudsters Get Up Close & Personal

Email Fraudsters Get Up Close & Personal

Fraudsters land in inboxes as advocates, police officials and friends through personally addressed mails

    Wealthy Nigerian businessmen and lonely Kenyan widows flush with funds soliciting your bank account details over an email to transfer millions of dollars are passé. As Indians migrate to the internet en masse, so are the not-so-friendly neighbourhood scamsters. These fraudsters now land up in your inbox as advocates, police officials and friends through emails personally addressed to you and laced with links to malicious software that can steal your personal information including those related to credit cards and bank accounts. One of the most successful on-going email scams is the job offer letter claiming to be from the office of the Vasant Kunj, Delhi-based human resources executive at carmaker Maruti Udyog announcing selection to the final round interview. Another one claims to be from a senior advocate based in New Delhi and talks about a case that has been registered against you in a local court.

“These emails are no longer sent by bored teenagers from college basements; most of the scams are pretty well-researched and advanced,” said Huzefa Motiwala, regional head at computer security software firm Symantec.

“Rise in email scams is directly proportional to the increase in internet penetration in the country, especially with the number of first-time internet users going up each day.” A recent Cisco study found that India is the world’s largest source of internet spam, followed by the United States, South Korea and China.

With over 130 million users, India’s internet population is one of the fastest growing in the world, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India. Cyber security experts who track internet crimes say most of the scam emails are targeted at average, technically less sophisticated email users.

The Maruti HR executive offering you a job wants a refundable deposit of . 16,900, which can be paid through ICICI Bank, State Bank of India or HDFC Bank, towards application and processing charges. Shilpa Rajora, the advocate from New Delhi, just wants you to download an email attachment that she claims contains legal documents related to the case. Rajora warns that there will be penalties and damages awarded by the court if you fail to respond within 15 days. Symantec’s Motiwala confirms that emails which spread malicious software or trick people into paying money have become extremely personalised and localised. In fact, one in every 500 emails from India attempts to steal the personal data of people such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, he said. According to Ravindra K Gadadi, deputy superintendent of Police at Karnataka’s state police’s cyber crime division, hundreds of similar email scam cases get registered with his department every week.

Scamsters Beware


• Mails are now laced with links to malicious software that can steal your personal info including those related to credit cards and bank accounts


• A recent Cisco study found that India is the world’s largest source of internet spam, followed by the United States, South Korea and China

INDU NANDAKUMAR BANGALORE ET 130308