Sunday, November 9, 2014

Fraudsters using New Tactics, Warn Cyber Experts

PUNE: Cyber criminals are employing new tactics to manipulate victims' data and steal money from their bank accounts, cyber security experts said on Saturday.

Customers need to watch out for skimmers fitted in ATM machines. Besides, they should never hand over their debit cards to unknown persons or share details like PIN with strangers, experts say.

The Kaspersky Lab recently performed a forensic investigation into cyber-criminal attacks targeting multiple ATMs around the world. During the course of this investigation, the Lab's researchers discovered a piece of malware infecting ATMs that allowed attackers to empty the cash machines via direct manipulation. Interpol alerted the affected member countries, including India, and is assisting ongoing investigations.

"They work at night - only on Sundays and Mondays. Without inserting a credit card into the ATM slot, they enter a combination of digits on the ATM's keyboard, make a call to receive further instructions from an operator, enter another set of numbers and the ATM starts giving out cash," said Kaspersky Lab experts.

Cyber experts said that fraudsters fit skimmers in ATM machine slots. Besides, fraudsters mount cameras above ATM keypads to know the user PIN. "At times, insiders collude with employees of the company that issues the cards," experts from Symantec said.

Experts have also warned about how victims of ATM frauds at times fail to get a cash withdrawal alert on their mobile phones. A cybercrime scrutiny expert said that in several internet banking frauds, the cybercriminals usually have insiders in the mobile company as well as the bank. The insider within a bank may provide the fraudster with information such as the 'fattest' account in the bank, the account number, user ID, the registered mobile number and even the prospective victim's know your customer documents.

The fraudster now knows the mobile company whose services the victim is using and arranges for an insider in that company to get the victim's KYC details.

The fraudster then uses these bogus documents to have another SIM card issued to him. Once the second SIM card is issued to the fraudster and is activated, the first one in the victim's phone automatically gets deactivated.

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