Hyderabad: Online portals sell e-mail identifications for as little as a paisa each; there are agencies that compile e-mail IDs and later sell them to cyber crooks.
The data is available from different portals where individuals provide their e-mail IDs, for making purchases.
A majority of portals, including those that offer free music downloads, need e-mail IDs.
Cybercrime superintendent of police Ram Mohan said, “The sale of identifications by portals to fraudsters is based on the quality of input. The more genuine the IDs provided, the higher the rate.”
Mr Mohan said purchasing information is the first step and could be followed by phishing. Various attempts like voice calls, text messages and e-mails are sent out in bulk to reach the target with the ultimate aim of extracting money. It may be Aadhaar card linking with the bank account, credit card reward points, e-filling of IT returns, where the target is deceived to reveal the bank account details and further the One-time Password. With a four-digit OTP code, the money is withdrawn from different cities, leaving very little scope for recovery.
The cybercrime department in 99 per cent of the cases has found that bank staff has played no role in providing information about account numbers nor are they part of the conspiracy.
Solving cyber fraud is difficult because the incident could be reported in Hyderabad, but the crime could happen in other cities. It takes months to track the source of fraud calls or messages made to someone.
