Ranchi (Jharkhand): As the year ends, festivities begin and shopping on the internet sees a marked increase, cyber-criminals have resorted to newer tactics such as manipulated cloning of popular online shopping websites to dupe people.
Many cases have come forward wherein cyber-criminals duped consumers by creating fake websites using subtle manipulation in the URLs of the original commercial websites.
The new Omicron variant has pushed more people to online shopping. Every day, people spend millions buying new year and Christmas gifts. Companies and even small-businesses that used to operate offline earlier have been compelled to sell their products online as well. Taking advantage of the time and the situation, cybercriminals are out, actively laying traps to catch their next prey.
While explaining how these cyber-criminals go about their deceitful plans, the Superintendent of Police (CID) Karthik S said that cyber-criminals make a subtle change in the name of the website, which would not be easily visible to the eyes of the consumers.
"For example, if they replace the 'o' in the 'Amazon' with the number zero, we would not be able to easily notice it unless seen very minutely. They do similar such things with other websites to gain the trust of the consumer before duping them," he said.
Cyber-criminals, he said, use bulk messaging applications to add to the effectiveness of their trap. Through this app, messages can be sent to hundreds of people at once, that too in a manipulated format. The criminals may copy the formats of the messages sent by banks or commercial companies and text them on the consumers' numbers. However, if carefully noticed, one may find grammatical mistakes in these fake messages, unlike the original ones.
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Understanding the URL and observing it minutely for discrepancies can be an effective tool to fight this fraud, says Rahul, a cyber expert.
According to him, the URL of any fake site starts with 'http' and does not have a lock icon. While for the secure websites, it will start with 'https' and will be accompanied by a lock icon implying that the websites are secure.
"The consumers should also avoid sharing their email ids. Especially when there is a tempting offer put forth, the consumers should be totally sceptical and refrain from going ahead with the seller," he added. He warned against giving any other personal details that the cybercriminal may try to acquire through forms asking for contact numbers, addresses, email IDs, PAN card numbers, credit card numbers, etc.
He further recommended reading the policy page that mentions the terms and conditions of the usage of the website.
"Usually pages like customer care, refund, money back, the guarantee will be found on the header or footer of any genuine commercial website. But if there is no such information on that commercial website, then it is definitely a fake website," he added. The usage of apps is always safer than ordering things online is also an insight that the expert shared.
The cyber expert further said that it is very easy for a software developer to develop an authentic-looking fake website. Hacking accounts to acquire passwords is also a common plight. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the masses to be extra careful while doing online transactions.
