A fake SMS being circulated which tells about a free offer claiming free 90-day subscription and free installation for just Rs 11 from Reliance Jio TV. But it actually is mining for information with an intention to fake users. It arrives from an unknown website ‘jiodishtvshop.com’. Clicking on the link provided in the text takes you to an authentic-looking web page which gives a small introduction to booking the Jio Dish TV.
One needs to enter important information such as name, email, address and phone number for the offer. Then one has to click on a Book Now button and you will be directed to the next page. We knew that there is no such offer and hence out of curiosity, we entered all fake information in the form provided, as a test. What seems to be very surprising is that even though we entered mere random alphabets, we were still directed to the next page.
The next window was a so-called ‘Paytm’ website, named ‘offers24hours.com’. This webpage is well-disguised as a payment page. For making a payment of Rs 11, a transaction ID is provided to the user. The payment window asks for payment options, which the user can choose between Debit Card, Credit Card and BHIM UPI.
A notification on the same page claims ‘Your payment details are secured via 128-bit encryption by Verisign,’ but it’s definitely not true. The same page asks for the card details ahead. Once the user enters the payment details, the next tab asks for security 3D Secure PIN that the user has to enter to proceed further. Here too, we entered all wrong information, but there was no check whether the card details are even authentic. So, in short, the user has been fooled into entering multiple personal and confidential information, that the hacker has now saved on his servers.
This particular technique is called Social Engineering where the scammer manipulates the general public by sending a believable and legit-looking message such as this. Just make sure you are fully aware of the details you enter on the internet and do a thorough background check before giving your personal details.
Similarly, nowadays people are even being scammed by fake ATMs. Here are some things to look out for before transacting in an ATM, just to be on the safer side.