Bengaluru: When a friend of former Karnataka Director General of Police (DGP) Shankar Mahadev Bidari received an email from his ID seeking financial assistance, he had no reason to smell a rat. As requested, he immediately transferred Rs 25,000 to a bank account whose details were mentioned in the email.
However, a follow-up conversation with Bidari brought the truth out.
Bidari had never sent the email. His email ID, Bidari told ThePrint, had been compromised, with the hackers involved targeting many people in his mailing list.
The former DGP filed a police complaint on 27 February and investigators are in the process of identifying the hackers.
Bidari, however, is not the first former Karnataka DGP to find himself caught in alleged phishing attacks — when hackers seek confidential information by projecting themselves as bank officials — and other forms of cyber fraud.
Since 2015, at least three others have allegedly suffered the consequences of online cons that have become all too common with the proliferation of digital technology and online financial transactions.
While former state police chief Ajai Kumar Singh lost Rs 2.13 lakh to alleged fraudsters last July, Ashit Mohan Prasad was targeted in 2018 and lost Rs 2 lakh. In 2015, the target was Karnataka’s then serving top cop Om Prakash, who was making a big push against cybercrime at the time.
Cyber fraud finds its victims in different forms. It can be the cloning of your debit card at ATMs, or a sudden call from purported bankers who warn you that your debit card is on the verge of expiring, and offer to help.
It can be an email seeking help or making a tantalising offer, or someone getting a clone SIM card for the mobile number you have registered with your bank. Then there is malware that attackers can install on your systems through innocuous-looking links, to gain access to your devices.
Money lost to cybercriminals can often be retrieved with early action, but awareness is key, say experts.
Also Read: Fake websites, UPI hacking — Delhi saw 190% rise in cyber frauds during lockdown, police say
Different ways
Speaking to ThePrint, Bidari said the accused hacked into his email account and connected with many people on his mailing list. As many cybercriminals are known to do, they sent Bidari’s contacts an email seeking financial help, and a friend promptly responded.
It was when the friend later called up the former DGP that they realised it was a case of hacking and cheating, Bidari said.
Police are now trying to track down the accused via the bank account details mentioned in the mail.
Bidari said police have been doing their best to track the culprits. “I have full faith in the system. Let’s wait,” he added.
The modus operandi used in the case of Ajai Kumar Singh was different.
Speaking to the media in July last year, Singh said he received a series of messages, including 50 OTPs, on his phone number in a 15-minute window between 11.15 pm and 11.30 pm one day that month.
This number was linked to his bank account. The next day, when he visited the bank, he was told that his account had been hacked, he added.
A case was subsequently registered at the office of the Bengaluru East division Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP).
Contacted by ThePrint, Bengaluru cybercrime cell officials said efforts to track down the accused are still on. Singh refused to speak on the issue when reached for comment by text.
In 2015, when then DGP Om Prakash was actively issuing warnings against online fraud, he himself became a victim of a phishing attack.
Prakash reportedly received a phone call from a Delhi-based fraudster who claimed to be a customer relations executive of a private bank, and said he was calling him to renew his debit card. The culprit told Prakash that his debit card was about to expire.
“He said my card would get blocked and, if I shared some details, he could get it delivered to my home without much hassle,” Prakash told this reporter after the case was solved, a month after the incident.
The former state police chief bit the bait and proceeded to give out all the details sought, including his card number and CVV (not to be disclosed to phone banking officials). Once the caller got this information, he told Prakash that he would receive an OTP. Instead of an OTP, however, a message flashed on his screen. Rs 10,000 had been debited from his account.
On realising he had been conned, the former DGP launched an investigation with the help of the cybercrime cell.
“During the investigation, we found that police teams in Gujarat and Chennai had arrested a gang of cyber fraudsters, including a man by the name of Ashraf Ali. Ali and three others were found to have been cheating several businessmen in several cities,” said former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) D.C. Rajappa, who was handed over the investigation by Prakash.
“A trace on Ali’s accounts showed he was the man who posed as the bank executive and contacted DGP Prakash,” he added.
According to Bengaluru cybercrime cell officials, Ali, a native of Delhi, had been part of a bigger network operating out of Chennai.
In 2018, former DGP Ashit Mohan Prasad lost Rs 2 lakh in less than an hour after alleged fraudsters forced him to disclose his debit card details, as happened with Prakash.
The fraudsters made two phone calls, introducing themselves as bank executives. They said two different cards held by Prasad were on the verge of expiring.
Within minutes, Prasad said, he received computer-generated cash SMSes that said Rs 1 lakh each had been transferred from both his bank accounts.
“I received calls when I was in the middle of some important work. The callers told me that my debit card validity is about to end and they need information to reactivate it. I didn’t pay attention and gave them the details,” Prasad told the media at the time. “It was my negligence.”
Also Read: Unknown nation-state hackers targeting vaccine cold chain in phishing scam, IBM finds
Time is of the essence
A cyber cell official, who didn’t want to be named, said time is of the essence in such cases. “If the complaint is reported well in time, then the gateway to the bank where the amount is transferred can be blocked and the money retrieved. But many a time, the victim realises it later, then it is very difficult,” the official added.
Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood said prevention is the key to being safe.
“Many people become victims of cybercrime because their credit cards get cloned or their personal information gets stolen fraudulently without any mistake from their side. Such cases are mostly covered by banks or insurance etc. But if there is an active participation from the side of the victim, which may happen due to ignorance but in reality largely happens because of greed or being in some weaker moments, the consequences can be irreversible,” he added.
“Anyone can fall prey, even you and me… but the key to being safe is to prevent, prevent and prevent cybercrime, and not to forget that there are no free lunches in this world.”
Also Read: Why cyber-risk education is the new form of literacy countries must keep up with
These poor Gov Babus are not to be blamed. When our very own Nidhi Razdan of erstwhile NDTV fame, went to an imaginary Harvard Journalism school, paid the fraudsters (no one knows how much), AND was congratulated by none other than the king of liberal intelligentia Prannoy Roy on LIVE TV as being Harvard’s gain & NDTV’s loss, what else needs to be said?