Cyber mafia create phishing sites of bank, RBI and govt. departments

Internet security giant Symantec recently conducted a survey in which it reported that cyber mafia have changed their techniques of gathering information from bank customers. Now these mafias are launching phishing websites in the names of leading banks and financial institutions in India. In the month of March alone there has been a 35% increase in the number of phishing attacks on Indian internet users.

It reported the cyber mafias are based in the US and some European and African countries are on the prowl. So people should be careful when receive an email asking to update personal confidential data online. People should double check from bank or income tax department before giving out the information to these cyber mafias.

They are camouflaged on the internet, using names of various banks, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and government departments. They are targeting banking information and personal financial details of people which they might later misuse it.

In the report Symantec has mentioned about phising website which was created in March by cyber criminals in the name of the RBI. The webpage of this phising website is different from the original RBI web portal, if the recipients are not careful they can get into cyber mafia trap. The cyber mafias are using a single web page to pass themselves as various banks and government agencies and are just changing logos and some key words to on the template to change identities. With close scrutiny you can easily identify fakes.

The phishing mail also have URL link. Clicking on the link, the target user will reach a website bearing the name of a bank or a government department. The mail requests the user to enter personal information, such as bank account number and password.

Most of the phishing websites created in March have URL extensions ending with .in, which actually indicates that they are Indian websites. On careful scrutiny it was found that the servers of these websites are located in the US.

According to a senior IT professional working with an internet firm, “The information provided by unsuspecting users could be used to siphon off money from their bank accounts. Their personal information might be used by cyber criminals to create fake registrations, fake ids and other illegal purposes.”