“Cybercrime” can fall into its trap

In the modern era, our dependence on the internet has become our compulsion to fulfill many of our daily life needs. Be it communication with loved ones or TV, public information, education, business or banking and employment is largely due to internet. From self-driving cars to online home security systems, we rely on technology or cyber systems for everything. In such a situation, the criminal elements use the Internet as their weapon and come up with new ways and formulas on a daily basis. Fraud people through calls by extracting their personal information, creating false stories to get their money or any other similar cases. It is called cybercrime.

”Hello !

I am speaking from Sadar Thane,

Are you talking about Faheem Siddiqui?

I was leaving to go to the office when I received a call from an unknown number and was questioned in a harsh tone. The person who spoke in the style of the policemen continued the matter in response to my G and said that your nephew is currently with us in the Sadar police station and an FIR has been registered against him. He came to meet a girl with two other boys, they fed the girl something, which caused her death. Now we have to present it to SSP.

The man who spoke in a staggered but stern tone paused as if he wanted to know my reaction, but I was listening to him in silence. After a moment of silence, he resumed the conversation and said that if you send us some money, we will not present your nephew before the SSP and put the whole mess on the other two boys.

This was not a new story for me. Two to three people in the office had received such calls and had transferred lakhs of rupees to save their nephews from appearing before the SSP and by the time they realized that they were being defrauded, many It was getting late and later he came and told me the whole story. My continued silence was taken from the other side that I must have been scared badly and of course it happens to people.

This time when he spoke, his tone was a bit sympathetic, he said, don’t worry. There are children, mistakes happen, just transfer two lakh rupees to me immediately. This time I asked him to take things further, “Which of my nephews do you have?”.Usually people are so scared of such calls that they don’t even ask. He was a little flustered at my question, but he immediately changed his tune and spoke very rudely. “Oh…you don’t understand what I’m talking about? Talk to your nephew.”

At the same time, a scary voice came from the other side, uncle, save me, they have beaten me a lot. The person’s voice came on the phone again, “You are satisfied? Is it your nephew? What is his name?” On the other hand, fraud is promoted in the same name.

I took the name of my 3-year-old daughter. The person in front said, “Yes, that’s the name he told me.”

All this is enough to scare any ordinary citizen and then they do as they are told. They don’t even try to confirm that the nephew or niece they are being asked for by making a single call to his or her parents, then the story is made so that the common man can save their honor. They believe. I was in a hurry to reach office and as I was fully aware of this fraud. So to avoid wasting time I cut the call but I kept getting calls from many unknown numbers including this number till that evening. He contacted me after transferring 8 lakh rupees in three installments.

He also received a call from the Sadar police station. Usually Saddar’s area and the police station with that name are in most cities, so it’s easy for the caller to pick up the name. Our senior colleague was informed of Sadar police station in Hyderabad, so I immediately spoke to DIG Hyderabad and forwarded him the number from which the call was coming. In no time the location of this number came and it was Bahawalpur. In Pakistan these days, thousands of people have been robbed by making such calls, but the performance of law enforcement agencies in this regard is zero to zero. This is a new method of phishing. Phishing steals personal and financial information of a person through the Internet. Say to do.

Now the question is, where did this citizen data come to the internet? Remember that whenever a person is called for fraud, the caller calls them by their full name and to identify themselves as the person concerned. He also repeats the citizen’s identity card number as proof. This is commonly done in banking frauds, where citizens are asked for their ATM card number and the three-digit CVV or CVC number printed on the back of the card, claiming that some of your Verification is required otherwise your account or your ATM card will be blocked.

CVV or CVC is called Card Verification Value or Card Verification Code, after obtaining which your card can be easily used anywhere on the internet. But whatever the type of fraud, the first thing that is required is the citizen’s name, phone number and identity card number, so that the receiver of the call thinks that the call is being made from the concerned institution or bank. Lucky for Pakistanis that their very personal information is easily available on the internet. This may be new and surprising to most readers, but it is true. This highly personal data of citizens is available on various websites and Android apps on the internet, which is nothing less than a valuable asset for phishers.

By entering your ID card number on these websites or Android apps, you can easily get your ID card number and your home address from the mobile numbers in your name or by entering the mobile number and the person who has it from anyone. If these three things are present, he does not have to work hard to make someone believe that he is calling from the concerned institution or bank.

The presence of this highly personal data of Pakistanis on the Internet is not uncommon, but unfortunately, despite the existence of laws in this regard in the country, the relevant institutions have remained silent. There is also a question that these websites and Android apps have this data from where? Is this NADRA data or is this data leaked from somewhere else? Chairman Nadra Tariq Malik says that this data does not belong to Nadra. NADRA data is highly secure, it cannot be stolen.

NADRA officials say that this is data stolen from mobile phone companies. He argued in this regard that NADRA’s data is in Urdu while the data available on websites and apps is in English. When mobile phone companies issue a SIM to a person, it is issued to their ID card number. For this purpose his biometric is taken. Biometrics authenticates the citizen with NADRA data.

In principle, mobile phone companies should not store this data after biometrics, but they do. Similarly, banks also have a system of verification from NADRA’s data and currently the data of Pakistanis on the Internet is the same which is allegedly stolen from mobile phone companies or banks and sold in the black market from where Android apps or Websites bought and put on their servers.

Since this sensitive data of Pakistanis is on the internet, it can be accessed from anywhere in the world, which is why sometimes citizens get fraud calls from abroad. PTA has the power to act on the presence of this data on the Internet. PTA may block such websites and apps in Pakistan. So far 18/20 such websites and Android apps have been identified to PTA but these websites and apps are still available on the internet today. PTA can block such websites or apps, but FIA Cybercrime can go a step further and take action not only against the operators of these websites and apps, but also by using the data available on the internet to identify various cyber criminals. FIA Cybercrime has the authority to take action against.

FIA Cybercrime has received lakhs of phishing complaints from across the country but action is almost non-existent. In this regard, a senior officer of FIA cybercrime said strangely in the past few days that whenever the location of the numbers used by the phishers is found out, they come to the banks of rivers or forests in South Punjab. These cases in cities usually involve frauds of a few thousand to a few lakhs, for which it is not possible to operate in these areas. One of the phishing methods is the use of biometrics.

Cyber ​​fraudsters take citizens’ thumb prints on silicon from biometric machines and then these silicon fingerprints are used for further transactions. NADRA officials say that to prevent this kind of fraud, NADRA has innovated its system and now on any biometric machine, be it in a bank or a mobile phone company, NADRA’s system can scan ten fingers of any citizen. I can suddenly ask anyone to put a finger on the machine.

This would require silicon fingerprinting of all ten fingers of a citizen to create a silicon fingerprint for fraud, which is not an easy task. According to a report, Google has also been contacted by Pakistan after the presence of citizens’ data on the Internet and has identified such websites and Android apps and requested them to shut down these websites and apps. go It also gives an option that if Google can’t do this, then at least stop advertising on these websites and apps, because the operators are earning millions of dollars from these ads. Phishing is not only a problem in Pakistan, it is also a growing crime in India.

Looking at the performance of Pakistani institutions regarding phishing in Pakistan, it can be said that if this rapidly increasing crime is not stopped, then indeed “everyone will be numbered”.