Hyderabad: Art galleries on hackers' palette

Hyderabad: Hackers are now eyeing art galleries and their clients to divert money using the email deception. Many art galleries in the world were targeted by cyber crooks to fleece several thousands of pounds. According to officials of the cyber crime unit, which is monitoring the developments, the criminals are hacking the email accounts of dealers and monitoring the email correspondences.

“Whenever an invoice is sent via email, the conversation is hijacked. The hackers send a duplicate invoice with details of their own bank account and a message to discard the previous mail,” said Mr Mohd Riyazuddin, Rachakonda inspector cyber crime unit. The hackers later transfer the money to another account or withdraw it with the help of their associates. Mr. Riyazuddin said that they had not received any complaint regarding the attack on art galleries.

According to a report published in ‘The Art Newspaper’, nine galleries or individuals fell victims to the scam. They include Hauser & Wirth, London-based dealers Simon Lee, Thomas Dane, Rosenfeld Porcini and Laura Bartlett. Ms Avari Rao, director Iconart Art, a city-based art gallery, said that only low budget art pieces are bought online in the city. “Buyers directly visit the galleries or directly deal with artists before paying the money,” she said. 

Mr K Ramesh Babu, an artist from city, says that there are scores of galleries in the city and the paintings sold are between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10 lakh. “It all depends on the artist and the work.” Cyber Crime officials said that this fraud is known as ‘email spoofing’ or ‘email fraud’. Email spoofing means the hacker sends a copy similar to the email sent by a company.

How to prevent email spoofing

•  Regularly change passwords 
•  Update anti-virus software 
•  Only send invoices by email if they are encrypted 
•  Double-check the sort code and account number
•  Urge all staff to be vigilant