BE ALERT OF CYBER ATTACKS VIA TEXT MESSAGES

 

                                                         Picture Courtesy : PIXABAY

Nowadays, the graph of cyber fraud is increasing at an alarming rate. Criminals are adopting various tactics to commit cyber fraud. Fraudsters take the help of SMS messages in many ways to trap mobile users, while others commit fraud through social media. The most common form of cybercrime in India is financial fraud. More than 77% of cybercrimes occurred in India between 2020 and 2023.

SMS is an important tool for digital communication. It is instantly available on all types of mobile phones worldwide. People usually open and read it almost immediately. Unfortunately, fraudsters have understood that mobile users can be cheated using SMS. They are swindling people of their hard earned money by constantly inventing new methods.

The Impact of SMS Fraud

A person who is a victim of fraud is completely devastated. For many victims these frauds cause lasting mental and physical trauma. In the worst case, some victims have committed suicide. It is obvious that if a fraudulent withdraws a large amount of money from the account of any person without any reason, his mental condition is bound to deteriorate.

Of late, it was in the news that a teenager from Nalasopara, Mumbai died after falling victim to a cyber fraud. The teen took the extreme step as he was reportedly unwilling to let his parents know what had happened. The teenager was duped of Rs. 2 lakh during an online fraud. Reports have revealed that he mistakenly clicked on unsafe links. The victim, scared after the loss, took his own life at home.

This is not the only case of this kind. Countless mobile users in India have lost a lot much money due to fraudulent SMS. According to a report by a cyber security firm, an Indian receives an average of 12 fake messages every day. These messages reach users through text, email, and social media platforms.

The purpose of these messages includes stealing data from users' phones and even breaking into their bank accounts. Not only this, about 82 percent of people click on fake messages. As a result, many of them become victims of cyber fraud. The report reveals that spelling mistakes can be seen in 49 percent of the fake messages.

The incidents of suicide after being harassed by cyber criminals are continuously increasing in Noida and Greater Noida too. An engineer in Noida lost Rs. 12 lakh after falling into the clutches of cyber fraudsters and after this, he committed suicide by hanging himself from a fan.

In Chhattisgarh's Surguja district, a woman trapped in the clutches of fraudsters in the pursuit of becoming a millionaire, committed suicide by jumping from a bridge into the Mand River.

A similar case has come to light from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Here, a couple trapped in an online fraud app committed suicide along with their two sons. The couple killed their two sons by poisoning them, then committed suicide themselves. The number of such incidents is endless.

                                                     Picture Courtesy : PIXABAY

World Wide Scenario

Cases of suicide due to cyber fraud are not limited to India only, such incidents are happening in many countries of the world. There is also increasing SMS fraud, or "smishing" due to the increasing use of smartphones. According to cyber security firm Proofpoint, there are an average of 300,000 to 400,000 SMS attacks every day and this figure is expected to increase.

In January 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission reported that in 2022, US consumers lost $330 million to fraudulent text messages. This represents a whopping 151% increase compared to 2021, which was $131 million. Sending fake bank security messages was the most common type of fraud, which reportedly increased almost 20x since 2019.

Seventy-four percent worldwide have experienced smishing in 2022. According to the Global Fraud Loss Survey 2023 by CFCA, the telecommunications industry lost $38.95 billion in revenue globally in 2022, which makes 2.5% of global revenue lost to fraud, up from 2.2% in 2021.

Types of SMS Fraud

The Mobile Ecosystem Forum is a global trade body that has identified 14 types of SMS fraud in 2021 and divided them into four categories: identity theft, data theft, network manipulation, and commercial exploitation.

Nowadays, financial transactions, social interactions, and professional activities mostly happen online due to which the penetration of cyber criminals has increased manifold. Criminals are looking to breach security measures and are using advanced techniques like phishing, ransomware, and social engineering to do so.

The message - "You've won a prize!" gets clicked the most. The report states that after reading the message – "won a prize!" 72 percent of people click on this. After this, the maximum click is on the job message, which is 64 percent. At the same time, 52 percent of people click on fake bank alert messages. Internet is also a factor in cybercrime which allows cyber criminals to easily conduct their operations from any location.

A Challenge for Law Enforcement Agencies

It becomes a challenging task for law enforcement agencies to track them and take suitable action against them. Additionally, the lack of stringent cybersecurity laws and international cooperation in some areas creates obstacles in combating cybercrime.

These scam messages are now so precisely crafted that they lack typos or errors, making them more convincing and challenging to identify. Consumers need to be very skeptical and careful of mobile messages coming from unknown sources. And it's important to never click on links in text messages, no matter how realistic they look.

Many countries have set up reporting platforms where people can forward suspicious SMS messages so that vigilant telephone operators can set up teams capable of filtering out some fraudulent SMS messages with the help of reporting tools in operating systems like Android and iOS and messaging systems like WhatsApp.

To Counteract the Rise in Cybercrime

Accepting the responsibility and challenge, the government has taken strict initiative and is directly blocking the mobile phones along with the SIM cards of the fraudsters. TRAI has intensified action against those who cheat mobile users through messages. Under this, the Department of Telecommunications i.e. DoT has started blocking the handsets involved in such activities apart from disconnecting the mobile numbers.

According to the latest report, the government has blocked 10,834 suspicious mobile numbers. The Chakshu portal has been launched by the government for complaints related to online fraud. For detailed information, you can visit https://www.cybercrime.gov.in. Till now, 52 locations sending fraudulent SMS have been blacklisted. Also, 348 mobile handsets have been blocked. DoT has blocked 1.58 lakh mobile devices taken on fake documents. The report says that DoT has disconnected a total of 1.66 crore mobile connections till April 30, 2024.

Although the steps taken by the government in this regard are commendable, it is not a win-win situation. There is a long battle to be fought. Vishal Salvi, CEO of Quick Heal Technologies, says that we have to gear up and prepare ourselves to counter such cyber-attacks. This means a challenging task for the government.

Keeping the constant creation of new methods by fraudsters to dupe innocent victims in view, there is a need to create a strong security infrastructure. Security awareness training campaigns should be launched among the common people on a massive scale and they may be educated on the risks of malicious text messages.

It is also important to give them information about what to look for, this will increase their ability to detect cybercrime early, and in many cases, they may be able to prevent it. The government on its part may give serious thought to it and provide a way to curb the prevalence of cybercrime in a fool-proof manner.

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