A simple SMS can defraud your bank account

All bank account holders should be cautious all the time as there are constant attempts being made by fraudsters to steal their money and here is one of the biggest methods used by them to steal innocent people's money! Digital transactions have made life easier for customers but at the same time have also opened them up to frauds through phishing, smishing and more.

Increasing digital transactions in the country has opened the fraudsters to do frauds through phishing, smishing and more. One is a payment link scam, which is not new but keeps appearing here and there. Second, auto-installing mobile malware through links and SMS forwarding app is also part of the modus operandi the fraudsters are using.

Generally, the smartphone users are the soft target from the cyber attacks. But the more we know about such malicious practices and using simple tips, the more we can protect ourselves online. The rule number one is all the smart phone users has to be smart enough on how to use the smart phone, they must know the do’s and don’t’s ,on how to use the smart phone ,else they must shift to the feature phone.

Through the smishing scam techniques, someone can get the user’s personal or financial information via SMS or instant messaging (on social networks) by pretending to be an entity such as a bank or a credit card company. The phishing attempt starts when victims arrive at the malicious websites through some means, usually through social engineering. Attackers could send the link to the sites in an SMS that is made to look like it is coming from a bank or other service provider. They typically create a sense of urgency so that users don’t take time to think before clicking on the link. Such domains identified by the researchers pose as fake complaint portals.

After installation, the malicious application is then used to send all incoming messages on the victims’ phones to the servers controlled by the scammer. The attackers haven’t used logos or names of Indian banks in order to avoid attracting suspicion and detection. The malicious app is not hosted on the Google Play Store or any third-party application stores.

An analysis of the application’s source code revealed that the malicious application is based on an open software Github project called “SMS-Forward.” Scammers can leverage the combination of the information they get and the OTP from the users’ phones in order to conduct unauthorised banking transactions and other malicious actions.

We would like to aware our viewers on opening of any unknown SMS and WhatApp messages from unknown sources …