A man from the city was cheated of ₹4,400 after he called up a number that he looked up on the Internet, believing it to be that of the District Collector.
Radhakrishnan Nair of Gajuwaka wanted to seek an appointment with the Collector to discuss some grievance at the Spandana meeting.
He then went online to search for the Collector’s number and typed ‘Visakhapatnam district collector’s number’. A number then popped up on his screen purporting to be that of the Collector’s.
Upon calling the number, he was asked to pay ₹1 via an online payment gateway in order to make the call. He completed the transaction, and within minutes found that ₹4,400 was debited from his bank account.
Mr. Nair then approached the cybercrime police and Gajuwaka ACP and lodged a complaint. The police said that the number was fake and does belong to the Collector.
CBI issues alert
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has issued a general alert based on inputs received by Interpol.
CBI has issued an alert relating to a banking Trojan known as Cerberus. This malicious software takes advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to impersonate and send text messages using the lure of COVID-19 related content to download the embedded malicious link, which deploys its malicious app usually spread via phishing campaigns to trick users into installing it on their smartphones.
This Trojan primarily focuses on stealing financial data such as credit card numbers. In addition, it can use overlay attacks to trick victims into providing personal information and can capture two-factor authentication details.
