Many times you receive emails and messages containing links which state you are eligible for an interest free loan, you have won a lottery worth Rs 50 Crore; there was a mismatch in amounts while filing ITR and so on. Do you believe these emails and messages to be genuine? Most often these kinds of messages are sent by fraudsters to steal money from your bank account. Unfortunately, not many people are aware of this and lose hard earned money to fraudsters. So, it is very important to be aware of the risks of clicking on an unknown link. In this blog, we talk about the dangers of clicking on an unknown link with a real-life example of a person who lost Rs 60,000 just by clicking on the link which he received through a message.
1. Clicking on unknown links sent through emails and messages could download a malicious file like a Trojan Virus or malware to your mobile.
2. Sometimes, when you click on an unknown link, you will be taken to a fake website which looks exactly like the original one. You will be asked to provide personal information. If you provide this information thinking it’s a genuine website, fraudsters could use it to carry out a fraudulent transaction.
A real-life example of a person who lost Rs 60,000 by clicking on an unknown link.
A 52-year-old businessman from Gurugram had received a message on his mobile from hackers, who pretended to be Income Tax officials. The message said his IT return was held up. He was asked to click on the link provided. As soon as he clicked on the link, an app got downloaded to his phone. Three days later, Rs 60,000 was debited from his bank account.
Read More - Dangers of Clicking on Unknown Links
Hackers used the fraudulent link sent to the victim to install an app on his phone. With the help of this app, the OTP was forwarded to the hacker’s mobile at 2.30 AM. Hackers transferred Rs 60,000 to their bank account in two online transactions. As the victim was asleep, he was not aware of this. When he woke up in the morning and checked his mobile, he got to know that Rs 60,000 was debited from his bank account. When he contacted the bank, they were not able to reverse the transactions.
When you receive emails and messages containing links, you must ask some basic questions before clicking on them. Those questions include:
Do you Really Know the Sender?
Do they send these kinds of messages and emails which you have received?
Is there any spelling or grammatical mistake in the message received?
You must also check the email address of the sender. Usually, there would be a small spelling error in the email address.
For instance:
Fraudsters will send email from the email address donotreply@incometaxindiafilling.gov.in while the original email address is donotreply@incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.
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