Wednesday, 31 May 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Stating that cyber criminals are now creating ‘secured’ websites that appear completely genuine to a user, the cyber police station of Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) issued new guidelines to identify such fake websites. The cyber criminals these days are not just finding new ways of committing cyber frauds but are upgrading their methods to ensure they can lure maximum victims, said the deputy superintendent of police of cyber cell police station, STF, Ankush Mishra.
Many such cyber criminal groups have been targeting pilgrims during Char Dham Yatra to make bookings for helicopter services via their fake websites. The STF has blocked dozens of such fake websites in the past two months but the cyber criminals have started creating new websites that appear secure and genuine to users. The DSP said that cyber criminals are now creating websites using Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) which secures communication and data transfer between a user’s web browser and a website while they earlier used to create websites using HTTP which is not considered secure like the former. He said that such fake websites might appear genuine to a user who can click on links mentioned there or provide his/her necessary information which can lead to financial fraud.
Considering this, he said that people should remember some points to identify such websites. He said that most such fake websites are single page websites and no matter where one click, the same page remains open. He said that many links mentioned there would not work, especially social media pages which are mentioned there to increase the reliability factor in users. He said that one can also check at the bottom when the said website was created as the more recently created website has more chances of being fake than the old one. Toll Free number mentioned on fake websites will be a mobile number and not the usual long toll free number with several digits, said Mishra.
He said that one should also look out for spelling errors in the URL or address bar of the website as genuine websites do not have these errors. Several spelling and grammatical mistakes in the content of the website also point to a fake website. They will also send messages and SMS to create fear of closing a bank account stating your KYC details are needed immediately and asking the user to click the provided link which leads to a fake website, said DSP. He said that cyber criminals will ask for crucial information or documents like Aadhar or PAN cards on the pretext of giving a heavy discount on tickets and services which is not usually done by genuine websites.
He asked the users to always stay cautious while using a website or making any online transaction. One must immediately file any cyber complaint at www.cybercrime.gov.in or call at 1930 for financial cyber fraud, added Mishra.
