Cyber cheats operate out of Dark Web to steal personal data

Noida: Misusing the technological advancements, cyber scammers steal personal data of lakhs of people via Dark Web, trick them on one pretext or the other and siphon off their hard-earned money.

Recently on Thursday, acting on an input of an American agency, Noida Police had arrested 84 people who were working in a fake call centre which used to dupe US citizens.

According to DCP Harish Chandra, "The scammers collected data of 4 lakh US citizens using dark web and interacted with them after contacting them using voice messages in which they would scare the foreigners, saying their social security number, a unique identity given by the government, has been compromised and will be blocked.

"The fraudsters would then tell the US citizens that for assistance in fixing the problem, they should press 1 on their phones after which the call would land at their call centre (in Noida) after which they used to dupe them."

Dark net is a part of web which is not easily accessible through normal search engines and only via special web browser.

Most of the cyber threats are being carried out in the name of providing job, loan on less interest rate, child pornography, fixing pop up virus on computer, giving gifts, lucky draw gift, among others.

According to cyber expert Amit Dubey, "Zero trust model is best for preventing self from getting tricked by fraudsters.

"Whenever you receive a call from a person saying that he is from police, cyber cell or Income Tax department, do not believe him/her instantly, instead enquire about the person and then talk. And the most important clue about them being a fraud is if they seek money from you because a government officer or an official will not ask for money from you over phone. Do not receive any WhatsApp voice or video call from an unknown number, do not open any link which is sent to you via messages.

"The most important point is that you need to be vigilant. You should think that when you have not purchased any lottery ticket, how you can win a prize or get selected, when you have not taken part in any talent show, then how can you be selected."