A new trend in cyber crime is coming to light, where phishing emails in the names of friends are being sent to victims, asking for “monetary help for treatment of a relative diagnosed with COVID-19.”
One such case was registered with the Powai police on Tuesday, after a professor staying in the area lost ₹1 lakh in the scam.
“The complainant received an email on April 24 from one of his friends saying that his close relative had contracted the novel coronavirus, and that the friend needed to raise money urgently for the relative’s treatment,” an officer at the Powai police station said.
As the email had come from the mail ID of a close friend, the complainant immediately transferred ₹20,000 to the bank account specified in the email, the officer said.
The very next day, the complainant received another email from the friend’s account. It began by thanking him and went on to describe in detail the treatment and expenses that were ostensibly going to be incurred. The email ended by seeking more help from the complainant.
“Taken in by the reports of rising deaths from the pandemic on a daily basis, the complainant transferred ₹80,000 more to the account,” the officer said. However, when he got a third email asking for a further sum of ₹1 lakh, he smelt a rat and called his friend to ask why so much money was needed. The friend, however, said, no one in his family was suffering from COVID-19. The complainant subsequently registered a first information report, the officer said.
The police have registered a complaint for cheating and impersonation against unknown persons under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, and are seeking assistance from the cyber police to investigate the case.
Cyber police officers said the racket was similar to those that capitalise on current affairs trends to dupe people.
“Hacking email accounts and sending mass emails to all contacts seeking monetary help citing an emergency is an old modus operandi and only the supposed emergency changes in line with current affairs,” said an officer with the Maharashtra Cyber Unit.
COVID-19, the officer, said, is an obvious choice as it has us all scared and if the email comes from a close friend, the first instinct is to send the money first and ask questions later.
“Hacking the email account is even simpler, especially if basic cyber security hygiene such as not keeping accounts logged in to public devices and changing passwords often is not followed strictly,” the officer said.
