Indian Railways: A 78-year-old man who tried to cancel a train ticket on the IRCTC website lost Rs 4 lakh in an online scam. In such a situation, read this news before canceling the ticket.
Indian Railways : Everyday crores of people travel using Indian Railways. In such a situation, lakhs and crores of tickets are also booked and then canceled due to some reasons. However, now pay attention to a big scam that happened before canceling the ticket. In fact, a 78-year-old man named M. Mohammed Basheer from Kozhikode Vandipetta tried to cancel his train ticket using the IRCTC website. But he fell victim to a scam and lost Rs 4 lakh.
This happened because he mistook a fake website for the genuine IRCTC website and got in touch with a person who posed as a railway employee.
How did such a big fraud happen?
India Today quoted Mathrubhumi news as saying, ‘When Basheer tried to cancel his ticket, he reached a fake website. Then someone calling himself a railway employee contacted him on the phone. This person spoke in both English and Hindi and told Basheer how to proceed.
As per the instructions, Basheer was asked to type something on Google. After following these steps, a blue symbol appeared on his screen and after that the phone was under the control of the fraudster. Apart from this, Basheer also disclosed his bank account details and ATM card number as directed.
Fraud was done with which device?
The blue sign that appeared on Basheer’s screen was a malware attack on his device. Scammers usually plant various types of malware to gain control of the victim’s device. One such type is Remote Access Trojans (RATs), which allow attackers to manipulate a victim’s system remotely. It is possible that the scammer used a RAT to gain complete access to Basheer’s device.
Additionally, keyloggers may be used, which record every keystroke made on the victim’s device. This means that sensitive information, such as passwords and banking credentials, can be obtained by a scammer using a keylogger.
Additionally, the scammer may have used spyware. It is also a type of malware that is designed to covertly monitor the victim’s activities and collect data without their knowledge.
How did Basheer know?
Basheer realized the scam when he received a message informing him that money had been withdrawn from his savings account. In a hurry, he went to the YMCA branch of his bank. However, by then Rs 4 lakh had also been withdrawn from his fixed deposit.
The scammers repeatedly contacted Basheer using three different phone numbers. After taking the first amount, he tried to contact the bank, but the scammers stopped him from doing so. Basheer took the step of formatting his phone to prevent further data leaks. He reported the incident to the cyber cell of the bank and the police.
Police said this
Investigation by the cyber cell of the police revealed that the scammers got access to Basheer’s phone by downloading an app called ‘Rest Desk’. The money was taken in four separate withdrawals, in which Rs 4,05,919 was debited from Kolkata. Police suspect that the phone numbers used to contact Basheer are linked to people from Bengal and Bihar.
