Deal or no deal: Hackers targeting Delhi's online buyers

NEW DELHI: The next time when you see a deal on an e-commerce site that is too good to be true, beware as it could be a hacker posing as a dealer or customer trying to cheat you.

A businessman from northeast Delhi learnd it the hard way when his bank account with around Rs 2.5 lakh in it got compromised while he was purchasing furniture online.

The incident occurred in March when the victim was scrolling through a website to purchase furniture for his office. The seller, who introduced himself as a retired defence personnel, agreed to sell his item at less than the competitive price. However, he insisted on the payment being made at the earliest.

“During their conversation, the suspect sent the businessman a text message to confirm his account details. However, along with the text was an encrypted link that contained malware,” said a police officer.

As soon as the man clicked on the link, his device got compromised. A probe revealed that the link gave the hacker remote access to operate the device. The hacker then accessed the businessman’s bank details and carried out transactions. It is suspected that messages and photos on the device were also accessed by the hacker.

A case of fraud and under IT Act has been registered. Cops are trying to track the lost money. To avoid getting caught, the fraudster transferred the money to e-wallets registered on fake SIM cards.

Police said that a spate of such incidents have been reported wherein people have been duped through hackers contacting them through e-commerce portals. A common thread emerging in these cases is that the hackers posed as men from the defence background. “The profiles were created either using stolen IDs or fake ones. There are same 10-15 photographs being circulated and used by these hackers to target people,” a cybercrime unit officer shared.

Explaining the modus operandi, police said the hackers use various software in this scam. First, they use applications to take remote access of devices. The links to take access of mobile phones are converted into a small URL, which is sent with a decoy message to the target. The message is designed in such a way that the victim doesn’t suspect it. They only realise that their device is compromised when illegal transactions are made.