HOW COULD YOU BE THE NEXT TARGET OF ONLINE FRAUD?

PM Modi's Twitter account was hacked, asked for a donation.

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk were targeted by hackers.

Israeli soldiers were tempted by pictures of girls.

You can't even imagine how dangerous a smartphone is.

These were some of the headlines of the news, which show the extent to which online fraud has become a part of our everyday life.

Smartphones, the Internet, and social media have made our lives easier and more enjoyable than ever. But due to this, fraud and forgery have also increased.

Since not every case of online fraud is registered with the police, it is difficult to say how many people become victims of this fraud every day in the world.

But online fraud is a fact whose bitter sip the whole world is compelled to drink.

But can online fraud be stopped?

WHITE HAT HACKING

The unfortunate thing is that online fraud happens very fast. I can steal your money and all your data within 5-10 minutes.

This is the claim of Rachel Tobeck, who is an ethical hacker.

Rachel explains, 'To know where companies hire me, there are loopholes in their system where online fraud can happen. I hack into their money and data to let them know which link is weak and how to repair it.

In this way, hacking done by consent with approval is called white hat hacking. Companies take the help of ethical hackers for this.

Rachel Tobeck knows how hackers think. It is a left-handed game for them to break into the cybersecurity of a company.

She claims, 'I will make you look innocent but will steal your money in the blink of an eye.'

The practices of online fraudsters may be slightly different, but their ultimate goal is to steal your data and money.

Rachel says that she has several options for online fraud, one of which is to steal login details.

Rachel explains, 'Even large organizations are afraid of malware attacks because it steals their entire data. It contains important information like usernames, passwords, addresses, phone numbers. Through this information, I can access and control any of your accounts.

OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE

In the world of cybercrime, it is called a 'credential stuffing attack.' A similar case came to light in Canada when some other government agencies, including the Online Tax Revenue Service, were subjected to credentialing attacks.

Hackers stole the information of thousands of people, then applied for a 'Covid Related Grant' and took away the money.

Rachel says, 'How we hackers can do this, it requires a different mindset. For this, we use open-source intelligence. Gather all your information, which can also be found from your LinkedIn or Instagram posts.

In online shopping and banking systems, a code is sent to the mobile before any transaction to protect its customer from online fraud. Rachel says that this method seems to be safe, so it can also be dented.

She says, 'For example, if you make any complaint or write anything on Twitter or social media about the telecom service provider you take services, from that I come to know that your mobile has which company's SIM, and this is the number on which the verification-code comes for the transaction. In such a situation, by breaking into that company's cybersecurity, I can take access to the fact that the verification code sent to you comes to me.

In this way, you become a victim of online fraud and keep wondering how it happened.

Rachel says, 'Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, it is tough to protect you from online fraud because every minute every day, there are so many phishing and 'malicious domains' being created. Even increasing the number of the counter police force does not work because the cyber-attackers execute their work so fast that there is no way to stop them.

SYSTEM FLAWS

'Laws have been made to deal with online fraud cases, but the fact is that we are neither able to do proper investigation nor are we able to catch the criminals and bring them to justice.'

It is believed by Tamlin Edmonds, who is a legal expert in online fraud cases. In the UK, his firm looks after private cases of online fraud.

Tamlin Edmonds claims that online scams cannot be stopped, as there is no preparation, no plan for it on the government front.

She says, 'Earlier when I was a government prosecutor, in the year 2012, I observed with two of my colleagues that there are massive cuts in government agencies. Then some crimes were not being taken care of, including fraud cases. Then we formed a firm so that the victims of online fraud can get justice without having to depend on the government system.

Tamlin Edmonds has a long client list that includes companies and charity organizations along with the general public.

DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE COURT

Online fraudsters do not care about the court. These are criminals who can sit in any corner of the world, comfortably target their victims in any part of the world.

The scope of online fraud is as big as our earth. While finding out where the money was stolen, there comes a time when you come to know that nothing can happen now.

Tamlin claims that if 'the online fraudster is sitting in UAE, he has stolen money online and transferred it to a bank account there, then there is no help from that bank, nor the police helps.

That is, criminals keep committing crimes and continue to flourish.

Tamlin narrates another experience where the police help, but too late. She says, 'It was a case of big money, about 2.5 million pounds. The company with which this fraud happened complained to the police of his area. On this, the police said that it would respond to this complaint within 28 days.’

 This delay in investigation is like a boon for online fraud people. During this, money keeps moving from one place to another, reaching a place where you can never reach.

In different parts of the world, there are many such undetected vulnerabilities in the system, due to which it becomes difficult, sometimes impossible, to catch online fraudsters.

LOW RISK, BIG PROFIT

Mohammad Imran is a Criminal Intelligence Officer in the Financial Crimes Unit of Interpol in Singapore.

Interpol is the largest international police agency in the world. 194 countries of the world are its members, and this agency works together with its member countries.

Mohammad Imran claims, 'As far as Interpol is concerned, we have solved many cases in the case of online fraud.'

One such case had come to the fore in the year 2018. A company that was a victim of fraud received a mail, which appeared to be an official-mail. Exactly as an employee sends his company's mail from the official ID.

The huge financial loss was caused to the company through this fake mail.

Mohammad Imran says, 'This case was fascinating because the fraud happened in Europe and five months later a person was caught from Nigeria. 45 cases of cybercrime, online fraud, and money laundering were registered against him. The police of different countries investigated the matter and gathered evidence. In Nigeria, Interpol got the data of more than ten thousand important people around the world.

In the wrong hands, this kind of data is like a valuable treasure. It is almost impossible to know how much money has been stolen around the world through online fraud.

THERE ARE MORE PROBLEMS

It is also tough to determine where the stolen money through online fraud reached the end after roaming the cyber world. This is the reason that in most such cases, the cases are never resolved.

In most cases of online fraud, money keeps going from one hand to another. This money laundering racket is spread in many countries. In such cases, getting back the entire amount stolen, understand that it is impossible. There are many parties in the middle, and everyone has their part.

Online fraud can be stopped, but it is also necessary to have the resources along with the will for this. This is the reason why making a good career in Cyber Crime Investigation is considered a difficult task.

On the contrary, this work, without cost and with low risk, is a big profit business for online fraudsters.

CHANGING TREND OF CRIME

'Criminals will always be there; we cannot stop them completely. But the methods of dealing with them can be improved.’

This is the claim of Stephen Konnan, a cybersecurity consultant and advisor to African governments.

They believe that online fraud cannot be eliminated, and it is also necessary to pay attention to local conditions to end it.

He explains this with the example of Ivory Coast, 'It was in the year 2005, then Ivory Coast was considered a haven for cybercriminals in Africa. The same was true of Nigeria. The government was upset and wanted to solve it.’

Stephen Konnan believes that trends in the world of crime are not always the same and change over time.

In the 90s, bank robberies used to happen a lot. Sixteen-year-old boys used to rob banks, but after 15 years, bank robberies stopped completely. Weapons and other equipment are needed to rob a bank. There was a risk of life. With the changing times, these criminals shifted to the world of cybercrime, because here the risk was very less and the profit of robbery was much higher.

CRIMINALS ALSO TURNED DIGITAL

Then the time also came when the cost of the internet became so low that every hand started groping the cyber world.

With the entry of broadband in cyberspace, the Internet connection available for $ 200 15 years ago in a country. Due to this, the number of Internet users increased rapidly, and with it increased cybercriminals. As the world became digital, the graph of cybercrime increased.

Then came the era of mobile banking, due to which online fraudsters got more silver.

Now we have mobile wallets on target of cybercrime. But most people are very less educated, do not understand technology properly, so cybercriminals steal money from their mobile wallets very easily.

The matter does not end here; the example of how criminals work in a digital world changes; its example was also clearly visible in Ivory Coast.

Stephen Konnan explains, 'In the year 2012, 60 percent of the victims of Ivory Coast's cybercriminals were abroad, especially in France, Canada, Switzerland, and Belgium. But now the trend has changed. Most of the victims of online fraud are local people, and foreigners are being targeted less.

The second important thing to note is that when the graph of cybercrime started to skyrocket in Ivory Coast, the government also took necessary steps to control it.

UNIVERSAL PROBLEM

Whatever we discussed online fraud, the examples of countries given can be applied to any country to a great extent. For example, in India, you will see online fraud, rigging, or forgery in newspapers almost every day.

Do not know how many of you readers must have experienced this fraud attempt at some point or the other.

Sometimes a phone call, an SMS, or an email has been sent to you to click a link for romance, sometimes lottery or any update, or asking you for some specific information.

The growing trend of smartphones and social media in every hand has given digital wings to the world, in which the modalities of fraud have also become digital.

But still, the right information, enough caution, and common sense can save your hard-earned money from being robbed.