HYDERABAD: The senior officials of the cyber crime wing on Saturday said the Interpol officials have issued warnings to several organisations, banks and their customers and hospital staff asking them to beware of online fraudsters. Explaining their modus operandi, they said fraudsters send a virus to the mobile phones and other devices of the customers that has One Time Passwords (OTPs). By accessing these OTPs, they withdraw money from their bank accounts.
“The cyber fraudsters are using Ransomware, a type of malware, to hold hospitals and banks digitally hostage and are committing data theft,” the Hyderabad cyber crime police said. For instance, if a person has a bank account and has taken a loan for which he/she has to pay EMIs, the offenders steal the data pertaining to the EMIs and call the person stating that the EMI payment date has been extending following the government orders.
They ask him/her to update the EMI data and send him/her a message with an OTP. Unaware of the fraud, the customers share their EMI details and the OTP with the fraudsters. The cyber crime police said the banks never ask the customers to share the details of their accounts and the OTPs. They advised people to open e-mails that are secure and only download software and applications that are from trusted sources.
If people receive calls from unknown persons asking for bank details and OTPs, they should contact the cyber crime police.