Hackers break into emails, steal cash in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Hackers are targeting the emails and smart phones of Hyderabad residents and looting money from them. Cyberabad cyber crime police has received many complaints from IT professionals recently after they lost money to hackers, who hacked their emails and pretended to be their relatives. Cyber crime police warn that crooks are also targeting smart phones and finding out the PIN and OTP of users.  

In one recent case registered at the cyber crime police station, an IT professional alleged that cyber criminals had hacked his brother’s account and extracted his bank account details by chatting with him using the hacked Gmail account.

“He got a message on Google chat from his elder brother living abroad asking for details of his Kotak Mahindra account for an emergency. He gave the account details including One-Time- Passwords (OTP) sent to his mobile number. When he lost money from his account, he contacted his brother and asked about it. Then he came to know that it was not his brother who had asked for the details, but the hacker,” said a police official from the Cybercrime cell. Many others have also lost money in a similar way, the officer added.

Cops say that hackers also use phishing mails to extract bank account details. “Emails with phishing links asking recipients to file I-T returns resembling the genuine portal are being sent by fraudsters, to gather info on bank accounts or debit/card details,” an official said.

The hackers are also now capable of remotely accessing smart phones and collecting PINs and OTPs by hacking them.  “Remote Access Trojans (a virus) can be sent to the user’s phone  mimicking an original smart phone. And if the user installs it the hacker can access messages which contain OTPs and PINs,” a cop said.

The police has suggested that users must install anti-virus software to block cookies asking for re-logins.