Phone calls need not always be the bearer of good news. In its recent report, a telecommunication firm said that around 44.6% of the phone calls made in 2019 were made by the scammers, and the numbers will rise up further in 2020.

Incidents of cyber crimes and phone scams are so frequent these days that the next phone call you are about to receive- might be a call from a scammer trying to steal your money.

Before you get up and receive your ringing phone, you might want to read this list of the most common type of phone call scammers that can put you at risk. Who knows maybe a little bit of awareness can save you from being scammed?

1. “Your ATM card has been blocked”

People often receive phone calls
from scammers impersonating bankers. To rattle you off and to show you that
they are ‘real’, they might even tell you your ATM card
number and the expiration date. While they have all that information with them,
they try to get you scared by telling you that the bank is blocking your ATM
card or even credit card for some discrepancies in your account. They say that
they can make it all go away and need to access your account for that, and so
they ask for your card’s PIN.

Do not share your PIN as it will actually give them access to your bank account, more than you would like, letting them withdraw all the money from your account.

2. “Send us the OTP to let us bank transfer your cash reward”

If asking your bank account details
directly wasn’t enough, they try to tempt you with attractive offers. Scammers
make phone calls saying that you have won a competition or a lottery; you might
not remember participating in. They say that you have won a huge sum of money
and/or a holiday in your dream destination.

For that, they need your bank
account number and ATM PIN so that they can transfer the sum directly to your
bank account.

While the reward might look tempting enough and the caller might seem trustworthy, these callers are most likely to withdraw all your hard-earned money instead of giving you a ‘reward’.

ALSO READ: Did You Get Trapped In The Netflix Phishing Scam?

3. “This is Techsupport, we want to help you”

With developing IT cells of the scammers, they often pose as tech support as well. They pose as IT guys from tech companies helping you get rid of your computer virus. They start by asking you to download software that helps you share your computer with them and gives them remote control access to your computer as well.

While you see them ‘helping’ you,
they are quite likely to be downloading all your personal information in the
background. Sometimes they often hold all your computer data ‘hostage’ and
threaten to give it back to you only if you pay a certain sum of money.

4. “Please confirm your Aadhar Card number”

This important identity card of
Indian citizen holds all of their key information. Along with the name, birth
date, family details, it has their bank account details, PAN card details and
many more. To gain access to all that information, bank account details and
more, scammers often come up with various schemes, that ends with them asking
for your Aadhar card number.

Please do not share that your Aadhar card details with anyone as your personal information can be misused.

5. “Click the link to spend time with this lovely lady”

We all receive such enticing emails
and messages that promise company to lonely souls. Although you’re intelligent enough
to spot the red alert in the message and understand it to be a scam, you might
receive some other messages and emails that can tempt you. Whatever it may seem
DO NOT click on the links that follow the ad mails and messages.

These links mostly take you to a homepage that gives the hackers access to your computer, and hence, your personal information and data.

As the number of scammers increase
in number with every passing year, they often come up with new ways to trick
you. Banks never call you asking for your bank details as they already have it
themselves. 

Do not disclose them to a ‘banker’ over the phone, as they are mostly a fraud impersonating a banker. If you feel your bank account details are at risk, do not hesitate on visiting your bank and talking to the bank manager, or even reporting a complaint to the police.

Image Credits: Google Images

Sources: Economic Times, Financial Express, Business Today

Find The Blogger @AyushArcher05

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US, British and South Korean police announced on Wednesday that they have taken down Welcome To Video: a Darknet market that had what the US Department of Justice (DOJ) says is the world’s most voluminous offerings of child abuse imagery.

The DOJ called this the largest market for child sexual abuse videos, and that this is one of the largest seizures of this type of contraband. The 8 terabytes worth of child sexual abuse videos, which are now being analyzed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), comprise over 250,000 unique videos, 45% of which contain new images that weren’t previously known to exist.

The global crackdown, which has so far led to the arrest of 337 alleged users and the indictment of the website’s admin, has led to the rescue of at least 23 victims living in the US, Spain and the UK. The DOJ says that the minors were actively being abused by site users.

The admin of Welcome to Video, who was indicted on Wednesday, is Jong Woo Son, 23, a South Korean national who was previously charged and convicted in South Korea. He’s now serving his sentence in South Korea.

The global dragnet has scooped up 337 alleged site users who’ve been arrested and charged worldwide: throughout the US, the UK, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Brazil and Australia. About 92 individuals’ home and businesses in the US have been searched.

Five search warrants issued in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area have led to the arrests of eight people suspected of both conspiring with Jong Woo Son and of being website users themselves. The DOJ says that two suspected users committed suicide after the search warrants were executed.

The bust

According to the indictment, on 5 March 2018, a global police force – including agents from the UK, the Korean National Police in South Korea, the US Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI), and the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – arrested Jong Woo Son and seized the server that he used to operate the market.

Welcome To Video specialized in exclusively selling child sexual exploitation videos. The site, which operated from June 2015 to March 2018, had a message on its landing page explicitly warning users to “not upload adult porn.” As of 8 February 2018, Welcome to Video indicated on its download page that users had downloaded files more than a million times.

The material documented abuse of pre-pubescent children, toddlers and infants as young as six months.