Indians Must Learn to 'Stay Safe Online' as Scammers Have Spread Phishing Net for IRCTC, UPI Users:

While Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw launched a new campaign called “Stay Safe Online” as part of India’s presidency of the G20, a report by Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs (CRIL) revealed that there is a new wave of financial fraud in which scammers, monitoring Twitter complaints, are targeting IRCTC customers and UPI users.

Researchers explained that when users report complaints on social media, scammers take advantage of the opportunity to conduct phishing attacks by instructing them to download malicious files in order to register their complaints and steal money from their bank accounts

Cybersecurity and online scams have emerged as significant concerns in recent years according to several tech experts, while the country is seeing a digital boom. From online payments to online healthcare consultation as well as education, Indians have embraced all types of new technology when needed. But at the same time reports highlighted a significant increase in online fraud cases too.

For example, as per Cyber Pravah, the third and fourth quarterly issue, UPI fraud cases have increased from 50,812 in Q4 2021 to 1,13,137 in Q1 2022. Additionally, internet banking fraud complaints saw a rise of 14% from 13,791 in O4 to 34,229 in Q1 of 2022.

It is said in the report that “technological advancements and the COVID-19 pandemic have also accelerated the reliance on digital platforms to perform daily and essential activities, making users increasingly susceptible to cyber threats”.

Additionally, according to data from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), UPI frauds contributed significantly to a 15.3% increase in the overall number of complaints reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) between the first and second quarters of 2022. Read More