This is how my dear friends, both senior citizens got duped by cyber criminals. When I was chatting with one of them on WhatsApp, I suddenly noticed that her DP or profile picture which was a cute one of her hubby and herself had suddenly changed to a picture of the Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. On calling her up to inquire about this, she immediately responded that her phone had been hacked.It took her an entire 24 hours to restore her phone and apps. A few days later she received a message from an unknown number 9363309006 on WhatsApp with the profile picture of Union Bank first saying ‘OK’ and then an ‘apk’ file (most dangerous as we have learnt now), 6.1 MB titled ‘Customer Support.apk’ . And then some screen shots and also a missed call.
Since it had a known bank logo as its profile picture, she possibly clicked on the customersupport.apk file and she called back but received no answer. A week later she received a message from her bank with an OTP and a notification that Rs 50 had been withdrawn. This particular account had a debit card but had not been activated. And since it was Rs. 50, perhaps a small amount, she did not think too much about it. Soon after that she received a call from the bank, informing her that all her money, amounting to a few lakhs, had been withdrawn from the account and the bank wanted to confirm if it was indeed taken out by her. She was shocked.
She quickly checked her messages and found a series of sms messages with OTP’s and withdrawals of Rs 500, then another Rs 10,000- and then Rs 1 lakh and another Rs 1 lakh! She was shocked and completely broken! How could this happen? She had not activated the debit card, she had not forwarded any messages or shared the OTP’s! She then immediately called the bank and informed the same. The bank asked her to lodge a complaint with the Cyber Crime Cell and then share the same with the bank.
When she shared this with me, we immediately called the Panjim Police Station and the Cyber Cell Ribandar. No response. No one was receiving any calls for the next couple of hours. So we then rushed to the Panjim Police Station, Cyber Crime section. When we inquired about the process of whether to lodge the complaint at Panjim or at Ribandar, some police personnel were rather non committal and had a barrage of questions. Didn’t you receive any notification when the money was withdrawn? Didn’t you call the bank? Maybe the bank only is involved in this financial fraud and crime, one lady police stated. Her tone and demeanour was one of assigning blame on the victim instead of the criminal! Aren’t these the very law enforcers who are responsible to safeguard and protect us as citizens from crime?
Finally one policeman offered to help and said that for financial frauds/cyber crimes of large sums of money it is best to report this to the Ribandar Cyber Crime Cell. We then rushed to Ribandar. There the entire team was super helpful. Or at least they tried to be. One immediately asked his senior who was probably an expert with phone apps etc. He immediately asked him to check for .apk files that were accidently or unknowingly downloaded. He took the phone, opened WhatsApp and did a quick search for .apk and instantly the ‘Union Bank’ unknown number popped up with the ‘CustomerSupport.apk’ file.
Till this time, my friend had no idea about this message or the .apk file. We were curious to know what this file had done. So the ‘expert’ explained that the moment the .apk file is downloaded, it hacks the phone and begins to access SMS messages and the cyber criminals then access your bank accounts and wipe out the money. When we inquired with the bank, they explained that the bank account was accessed using a virtual debit card! How can this be done? Once your SMS’s are hacked and accessed, it is not too difficult for a fraudster to access account numbers, customer ID’s and apply for a virtual debit card.
After learning about all this, the Cyber Cell Expert at Ribandar then said that they will help with registering the complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting portal. The staff at the Cyber Cell were extremely helpful and assisted with writing the complaint, downloading the requisite evidences and bank statements. After the formalities of registering on the National portal were done and on returning home, my friend received a message that there was an error and the complaint on the National portal had not been registered.
She along with her husband have been calling up the Cyber Cell and making trips to both Ribandar and Panjim Police Station but till date the process of successfully registering this fraud on the National Portal has not been completed because of some glitch in the system. How will citizens avail this facility if such glitches persist and the criminals run scot-free?
There is an urgent need to create awareness on cyber crimes and financial fraud by the Police Department and Cyber Cell using all media. The Government needs to put in action the Data Protection Bill where personal information of its citizens is protected.
It is also critical that the vulnerable section of society like children, youth women and senior citizens are made aware of the tricks hackers use in cyber space through gaming platforms, social media and apps like WhatsApp.
(Tallulah D’Silva is an architect and silver awardee of the Golden Door Award 2020 for truth and integrity)