Paying online? Get website name right

NEW DELHI: Not so long ago, there would be long queues in front of government offices of hassled bill payers. But when the banks initiated online operations, government departments followed suit. Today online bill payments have become the hot target of cyber crooks, say police.

"Most of the complaints we get are from middle class people who have been duped of their hardearned money in the space of a few clicks or calls," said a cyber cell officer . The most common modus operandi is making the customer use the wrong website for making payments . Fraudsters usually play around with the name of the original website with the intent to confuse consumers. "For an authentic website, say abc.com, crooks may come up with ab.com or abc.co.in.

One should be careful with the name and other details," said Pavan Duggal, a cyber law expert.

'Customer care' calls which ask consumers to reveal personal information are another hazard. A real customer care officer would never ask for passwords and PIN, and if need be, divert the call to interactive voice response, the officer added.

While there has been a 46% rise in cases under IT Act in Delhi, Faridabad and Ghaziabad have witnessed a rise of 67%. Delhi Police registered 73 cases under IT Act in 2012 and arrested 17 people, including a foreign national. In 2011, 50 cases were registered under the Act. "We are an easy target. Those in the service sector are a busy lot and not always savvy or organized enough to conduct online transactions safely. They are gullible and easily persuaded to part with personal info," said Kishore Mishra, an insurance company manager.

How to guard against cyber fraud? One way is to keep a separate account for utility payments. "If all your bills add up to around Rs 10,000 monthly, one can transfer this money to the new account. This way, if a fraud occurs, you stand to lose less money," Duggal said.

One should also watch out while shopping online and refrain from using websites offering abnormally large discounts and incredible deals. "One should be vigilant against skimming/cloning while swiping cards at merchant outlets or petrol pumps," he added. Those involved in such crimes in Delhi were found to be between 18 and 45 years of age, police said. However, National Capital Region figures are far less when compared with Bangalore's (342 cases) and Vishakhapatnam's (153).

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