If you are always quick to help a friend in need over the Internet, you may want to think twice, as cyber criminals might be sending emails from your friend's account, asking for money.
Take for example the case of Maxwell Pereira — who was once the Capital's most dreaded traffic cop. His online address book contacts were surprised when they got an email from saying he had found a rare painting but did not have the money to buy it. The email asked for money to be wired to an account in Nigeria.
The catch was that Pereira never sent that email.
“The scamster found and changed my password so he could operate under my name. He had access to 2000 people from my address book,” Pereira says.
Girdhar Rathi, a retired journalist, is another victim of cyber fraud. He spends all his free time at Delhi home. But an email sent from his account claimed he was stuck in Spain and begged for money to travel back home.
“A few days before that I had got an email that had a Yahoo logo. It asked for my user name and password. I didn't think and gave it to them,” Rathi says.
Luckily no one sent Mr Pereira or Professor Rathi any money as they had warned all their friends about the scam. But if your friends get such an email and respond — they’d be sending a lot of money to a smart hacker abroad.
So here's what you can do to stay safe: Ignore or carefully check any email that asks for your personal details. Always use separate IDs and password for official and personal mails and change them often.
Never respond to suspicious mails, like those that promise lottery prizes and don't reveal your personal details on social networking sites as they're prime hunting ground for hackers.
Remember Internet security can only be as strong as the weakest link in it and that weakest link is you. Exploiting your trust is easy. So be careful and don't fall for these cons.
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