Beware of These Frauds! They Keep Trying All Kinds of Phishing Methods!

I have been getting scores of emails and SMS messages announcing me as some winner of some lottery promoted in the name of world famous companies and requesting me to part with some personal information such as bank account details for the company to process the millions of dollars lottery amount to my account. 

The first time I got such an email was some 8 years ago. That time such e-mail frauds were not so well known. Yet my common sense warned me of the likely fraudster or fraudsters behind such a mail. 

I wanted to know more about it and I forwarded the mail to FBI who promptly confirmed the scam.

Since then, I have seen such mails and mobile phone SMS messages in various forms. The fraudulent people behind such activities continue with their acts because they still get a few fellows who get in to their phishing net due to greed for making quick money. 

Today too I got such an email. The subject of the mail said: Confirmation. The sender's email address was given as nandita.anuradha@cognizant.com. I do not know whether there exist a genuine email account holder in that email id or whether the fraudsters have made some software goof ups to send mail using this mail id.

The mail contained a word file attachment. The content of this world file document had been made to look as if it is very genuine. Let me reproduce some of the content below:

CHEVROLET AUTOMOBILE COMPANY

Chevrolet UK PLC, Griffin House,

UK1-101-135, Osborne Road,

Luton, Bedfordshire LU1 3YT

Register company number: 4533384

Telephone: +447010052776

http://www.chevrolet.co.in/enjoy-mpv.html

                                                                                           STAR PRIZE WINNER!

Dear Sir/Madam,               

This is to inform you that you have won a BRAND NEW Chevrolet Cruse CAR and cash prize of  3.6 Crore INR the car comes with a special CHEVROLET INSURANCE Cover for one whole year that is till the next promotion. It also comes with a one year warranty and FREE repairs at any CHEVROLET AUTOMOBILE   depot or service center worldwide. Your Batch No: 515944052/166 and Winning No: 1544 make you as one of the lucky winner in our 2015 Charity bonanza. You are to contact our claims manager on this Email :( ukclaimchvy@outlook.com) with the below details for claims.

Please Fill the Information below:

MAKE SURE YOU SEND THESE DETAILS TO (ukclaimchvy@outlook.com) FOR THE RELEASE OF FUND

          

1. Full Name:

2. Full Address:

3. State:

4. Occupation:

5. Age:

6. Sex:

7. Mobile Number:  

8. Country

9. Winning Email:

NOTE: - YOU ARE TO IMMEDIATELY SEND YOUR COMPLETE INFORMATION TO OUR AGENT FOR IMMEDIATE PROCESS OF WINNING ON THIS EMAIL ID ONLY :- (ukclaimchvy@outlook.com)

For those who are aware of the internet and the types of internet frauds, the above is nothing new. But for those who are innocent new comers, these are potential dangers.

When a gullible person replies with the personal details, the clever fraud masters behind the scenes use that information for various purposes. In the beginning they may reply you appearing as genuine as possible and make you provide more information and personal data which will finally land you in bigger problems. They might use the data to manipulate your bank accounts and many other such fraudulent acts which only fraudsters can think of.

So, dear reader! Beware of such phishing (unauthorized attempt to gain confidential personal information for fraudulent use later) attempts. Do not get in to the trap, even when the mails and messages appear very genuine.

It is also very important to keep in mind that no banks or financial agencies send you emails of SMS compelling you to part with personal data. In case you receive such a message, make it doubly sure from the concerned office about the genuineness of that mail or message.

You may also read the warnings given by the police authorities of a few other countries such as the UK, Australia , India and  Canada.

If you notice some thing of a very serious kind of fraud, you may make a complaint with the Serious Fraud Investigation Office in India.

Beware of Modern Era Frauds !

In this world of ours, there will always be present a group of cunning and clever fraudsters who keep planning and executing their techniques of cheating innocent and gullible people in several ways.

A good number of people are aware of such nefarious schemes of twisted fellows, but more and more people keep falling preys to them even now.

So, it is necessary that those who are users of the Internet should know about such things in order to safeguard them from getting themselves victimized by such groups.

Let me tell you about my own personal experience in this, which happened to me a few years ago when such things were not very common.

In the first incident, I got a genuinely looking and neatly printed letter in the letter head of an organization introducing them as a very reputed Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).

A person introducing himself as the Secretary General of the organization had written the letter.

They had my name and address obviously collected from some source !

The letter stated that I had been selected for a prestigious award for the contributions that I did in my professional field. The selected awardees are to be honoured in a function to be held later in the year in the capital where top dignitaries of the nation would all be attending.

The letter had other documents as attachments. One leaflet described in detail about the activities of the NGO with a few photographs of events held in the past. Another one described the details of some awardees from the previous years.

But the awardees were all known who is who of the country. That made me suspicious as I was no such a great person to be included in such an elite list.

At the same time, I was thrilled. Who knows, I could indeed be a 'great' person to be 'spotted' by this NGO !

The introductory letter just wanted me to reply back with my willingness to accept their invitation and a brief write up and photograph to be included in a Souvenir that would be published during the award distribution ceremony.

That was not difficult. So I decided to comply with the requirements. I replied back.

Shortly I got another beautiful envelope from the said NGO by post.

Again a very decently phrased letter. This time the letter politely informed me to sent them a substantial amount as part of the costs towards printing , publishing and organizing the event. For such a grand event and such a great honour, the amount was just peanuts. They reminded me.

Then this innocent and decent looking fraud scheme got clear to me. I refused to be their game any more ! Later I had seen news coverage of  some people receiving the same awards from the same NGO. 

After all they are awarding people who are willing to bear the costs ! What is the degree of this fraud ?

I leave it for your own assessment.

Some time later, I got a decently worded e-mail. It said that my e-mail was included in an international level lottery and I had won a few million British Pounds as the prize money !

To claim the prize money in foreign exchange I should sent my details including bank account to the organization.

The letter looked so genuine with names, addresses, telephone numbers, organizational logos, website addresses and the like. For an ordinary person, there was nothing to be suspicious.

Now this fraud is very common. But at that time it was not. Yet I decided to find out the truth. I forwarded the letter to a fraud investigating wing of the FBI.

They replied me with the details of the modus-operandi of this international fraudsters who operate from Nigeria.

The Internet is the arena of clever and intelligent fraud masters of modern era.

More and more clever ways of fooling the gullible people are devised every now and then.

I earnestly advice my readers to use their God given wisdom and intelligence to ward off such deceitful human minds taking them for a ride.

There is a website called hoax-slayer which is a good effort of one Mr Brett M.Christensen for providing information about frauds and hoaxes that pervade the world wide web. Those interested more on this may consider improving their knowledge by going through the information that this site provides.