Rs 60,000 Robbed After Victim Clicks On A Forwarded Link; Fraud App Hacks The Phone, Steals OTP

In a bizarre incident of digital fraud, Rs 60,000 was robbed from the bank account of a user, after the victim just clicked on a forwarded link.

How to avoid such incidences? And how can just clicking on a link rob money from bank account?

Keep reading to find out more about this new-age robbery, using Digital medium.

A case of cheating was lodged in the Sector 10 police station of Gurgaon, filed under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal CODE(IPC).

This case of fraud started when a  52 year old businessman, Harish Chander  from Gurgaon received a call few days ago. The fraudsters claimed to be from the Income Tax Department, and informed the victim that his IT returns are being blocked due to some technical reasons. He was asked to wait for another call.

After two-three days, the Harish again received a call from the same person who claimed to be an official from IT Dept.

This time, he provided a solution as well. He forwarded a link to the victim, and asked him to just click on that. Once he clicks, the issue related with IT Returns will be automatically solved, said the fraudster.

Since the victim was not a geek, and not a regular user of smartphones/Internet, he clicked the link.

What worse can happen, Harish must have thought.

When Harish got up in the morning, he found Rs 60,000 robbed from his bank account. He was shocked, and stunned.

When he checked his phone, he found that he had received an OTP for the transfer of Rs 60,000 at 2.30 AM.

Harish immediately filed the complaint at the Section 10 police station, and after that, the exact picture came out.

When Harish had clicked that forwarded link, an app was automatically installed in the phone, which Harish was not aware. When he received the OTP at 2.30 AM in the morning, the app automatically forwarded the OTP to the fraudsters, and this way, Rs 60,000 was robbed from the bank account.

Mohammad Azad, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) who investigated the case said, “We have tracked the number to which the OTP was automatically sent, and found that the number is registered in Pune,”

Security Experts have repeatedly told all users of Internet and Smartphones to avoid clicking on suspicious looking links, as they can be a bait to lure the non-tech users, and steal money from them.

As per Raj Singh Nehra, Director of International College for Security Studies in Delhi, the innocent looking links with fancy URL shorteners (it can be anything, impersonating a Income Tax domain is not a big deal) can have a maze of fraud, and dangerous links in the background.

Anything is possible once a click has been made, and the link opens up as it can trigger N-number of actions, unknown the user.

He said, “Though we see only one link, there are hundreds of back links to the same, although they are not visible to the user. Eventually, the user’s electronic device gets hacked.”

Avoid clicking on unauthorised, suspicious looking links, and be safe!