Scammers spread phishing net for IRCTC, UPI users: Report

A report by Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs (CRIL) revealed that there is a new wave of financial fraud in which scammers, monitoring Twitter complaints, are targeting IRCTC customers and UPI users. While sharing several pictures as proof of the modus operandi, the latest investigative report by CRIL has shown that there is a new scam trend, targeting Indians who post complaints on social media accounts.

In the blog post, CRIL noted: “The scammers use Twitter to find potential victims by monitoring user complaint tweets. These tweets, which are meant to bring attention to issues and problems, are being exploited by cybercriminals to target their victims. We also noticed a scam involving the IRCTC. The scammers seem to monitor Twitter for complaints about the Indian Railway, and when they find a victim’s contact information, they will call to initiate the scam."

It was also found that the scammers who contacted people via WhatsApp used the IRCTC logo as their profile picture to convince victims that they are legitimate IRCTC customer support representatives.

The researchers claim that multiple scammers may target the same victim and use different tactics to gain control of the victim’s bank account through UPI fraud. According to them, “some examples of UPI frauds that scammers may use are linking the victim's mobile number or account through UPI to a scammer device".

Cybersecurity and online scams have emerged as significant concerns in recent years as the country sees a digital boom. Reports highlighted a significant increase in online fraud cases. For example, as per Cyber Pravah, the third and fourth quarterly issue, UPI fraud cases have increased from 50,812 in Q4 2021 to 1, 13,137 in Q1 2022. Additionally, internet banking fraud complaints saw a rise of 14% from 13,791 in O4 to 34,229 in Q1 of 2022.

The report states that “technological advancements and the COVID-19 pandemic have also accelerated the reliance on digital platforms to perform daily and essential activities, making users increasingly susceptible to cyber threats".

According to data from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), UPI frauds contributed significantly to a 15.3% increase in the overall number of complaints reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) between the first and second quarters of 2022.

Considering these new scam trends and possibly more unique cyber threats to appear in coming months, the Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently launched “Stay Safe Online" campaign, along with the “G20 Digital Innovation Alliance" (G20-DIA), is a reasonable initiative to raise awareness among citizens about the importance of staying safe online.