With more and more people worldwide preferring online transactions, cyber criminals are using the ‘fake technical support’ model to steal consumer data, says a report by security software firm Symantec. According to the report, fake technical support scams saw a 200 per cent increase globally in 2015.
“With close to five lakh attacks last year, India ranked 11th amongst countries targeted the most by tech support scams...Countries targeted the most by tech support scams were the US, UK, France, Australia and Germany,” Tarun Kaura, director, Solution Product Management (Asia Pacific and Japan) at Symantec said.
He added the difference now is that scammers send fake warning messages to devices like smartphones to prompt people to call attackers directly in order to dupe them into buying useless services or even install malware. “In total, Symantec blocked more than 100 million tech support scams last year (globally),” he said. Kaura said advanced criminal attack groups are now echoing the skill sets of nation-state attackers. “They have extensive resources and a highly-skilled technical staff that operate with efficiency,” he added.
Kaura said customers should use strong and unique passwords for their accounts, which are changed every three months. “Also, they should think before clicking. Opening the wrong attachment can introduce malware to users’ system. Never view, open, or copy email attachments unless you are expecting the email and trust the sender,” he said. He added that users should also not disclose account details to someone claiming to be from a financial institution or tech support. —PTI
