Cyber Crime The Online Banking Fraud Information Technology Essay

Wow! We are currently living in cyber or robo age, where internet and computers have major impacts on our way of living, social life and the way we conduct business.

Just as everything has positives and negatives, usage of this modern technology is beneficial as well as insecure. With the growth of the internet, Network security has become major concern.

Cyber Criminals are doing everything from:

Stealing money.

Hacking in to the other computers.

Stealing intellectual property.

Spreading viruses and worms to damage computers.

Now a day’s internet banking fraud became common practice for cyber criminals. It is just a fraud or theft committed using online technology to illegally remove money from a bank account and transform money to another account in a different bank.

Internet Banking Fraud is a form of identity theft and usually made possible through techniques such as” Phishing”.

Internet Banking is widely used to:

Check account details.

Make purchases.

Pay bills.

Transfer funds and print statements.

In this case due to some ignorance and silly mistakes we can easily fall in to the trap of cyber criminals.

CASE STUDY

One financial Institute registered a crime stating that some members or persons (“perpetrators”) have perpetrated certain acts through misleading emails ostensibly emanating from one of the bank email ID. Such acts have been perpetrated with intent to defraud the Customers.

        The Investigation was carried out with help of those emails received by the customers of that financial Institute and arrested the accused, the place of offence was searched for the evidence. There one Lap Top and Mobile Phone was seized which was used for the commission of the crime.

         The arrested accused had used open source code email application software for sending spam emails. He has down loaded the same software from net and then used it as it is.

          He used only VSNL emails to spam the email to customers of financial Institute because VSNL email service provider do not have spam box to block the unsolicited emails.

          After spamming emails to financial Institute customers he got the response from around 120 customers of which 80 are genuine and others are not correct because it do not have debit card details as required for e-banking.

          The financial Institute customers those who have received his email felt that the email was originated from the financial Institute bank. When they filled the confidential information and submitted that time said information was directed to accused.

This was possible because the dynamic link was given in the first page (Home page) of the fake web site. The dynamic link means when people click on the link provided in spamming email that time only the link will be activated.

The dynamic link was coded by handling the Internet Explorer clicks and the information of the form will be submitted to the web server (Where the fake web site is hosted). Then server will send the data to configured email address and in this case email configured was to the accused email.  So on submission of the confidential information the information was directed to email ID accused email .The all the information after fishing (user name, password, Transaction password, Debit card Number and PIN, mother’s maiden name) which he had received through internet connection

SOLUTION

Here are some simple tips to prevent you from falling into the trap of cyber criminals. Remember, a simple ignorance or oversight can make a huge dent in your hard- earned savings. 

  Securing account:  

Always our account details should be well secured and we should remember properly. We should not write in a diary or a piece of paper. Online banking should be done very carefully and should not be done from unsecured internet or wifi systems. Always try to do from home PCS.we should not tell password to anybody. Change the password frequently. If any mails come from bank for quieries, we should not reply them and should not tell any personal account details. Do not keep our personal account information in any public computers or emails.

 Phishing:  

Phishing is a system where crudely or unknowingly gain access to the people’s online banking details or their personal data regarding online banking. In this system where phishing emails will target some online customers or some online auction sites or other online payment or money transfer facilities. This phishing email will ask online banking customer to follow a link in order to update their personal bank account details like username or password. If the customer follows the link for downloading or continuing the program which captures the person’s banking login details and sends them to a third party.

   Phishing emails mainly create such situation which floats a similar to that of a person’s bank. In this fraudsters act as bankers for that created site. On the basis of database upgradation, they will ask the entire person’s account details, user name or password. They will carry out transactions when they will get our online banking account details without our knowledge.

  Spam: 

Spam is a unwanted mail or information or message or it is like a electronic junk mail. Actually these mails or messages will be keep on sending to your account. These messages or mails will be varying but they are very commercial and their sheer volume also will be keep on varying. In these messages they will tell you to buy a product or they may persuade to buy a product or service. They will tell you to visit their web sites where purchases will be going on. When we are doing purchases, they will try to get our personal online banking account details or credit card details.

  Nigerian Scam:  

It is a lottery scheme in which some overseas personnel or some Nigerian personnel are involved to cheat some innocent persons or online banking customers by promising to give some good amount of money by nominal fees or by conducting normal schemes. Their main intention is to steal money in the form of fee against the lottery prize by showing large amount of prize money.

  Spyware:  

Spyware is a different software or Trojan horse in which. Spyware may take personal information, business information, bandwidth; or processing capacity and secretly gives it to someone else.  

   “Trojan Horse” scheme unfolds when this malicious software introduces into the consumer computer or his own PC. These Trojans often come in links or as attachments or as different format from unknown email senders. After installation the software detects when a person accesses online banking sites and uses the username and password to transmit to the offender or to make online transactions. People using public computers or outside internet cafes, are often susceptible to Trojans like malware or spyware.  

 Check sites URL: 

Our banks web site URL should be always checked and should be confirmed. Fraudsters can make you to enter your user ID and password or other online banking details at a fake website that resembles your bank. If you see anything other than the bank’s genuine URL, it has to be fake or something wrong. In this case please confirm with the bank. 

 Never enter your user ID or password or such online banking information or details without confirming that you are on the right website. Always type the Web address of your bank into the browser address space or use new web address for entering into the online banking. Never click on the link in the email or never directly download the attachments in your email.

 Fool-proof password: 

Online banking password and other important details should be changed at regular intervals. Avoid easy-to-guess passwords, like first names, birthdays, kid’s or spouse’s name and telephone numbers or friends names or any important celebrity names. Try to have an alpha-numeric password, one that combines alphabets and numbers but that should not be written in some paper or should not be stored in some emails or personal documents.

  Never use the same online banking password for all several bank accounts. Never select the option on browser that stores or retains user name and password or other online banking details. As it can easily be cracked or detected by cyber criminals. Also, never paste your password, always type it in and never store password in emails for direct access. This little amount of `finger exercise’ will go a long way in safety and it will save lots in our life.

  Always check ‘last logged’:  

Most of the banks will have ‘last logged in’ panel on their websites. If your bank has it, check the panel whenever you log in and check the data when you last logged in. If you notice irregularities (like you are logging in after three days, but the panel says you logged in that morning!), report the matter immediately to your bank and change your password right away or try to block the online transactions.

   Always log out when you exit the online banking portal or after finishing online banking transactions. Close or shut the browser to make sure that your secure session is terminated. Never exit simply by closing the browser or shutting off the PC.

 Keep your system up to date: 

Daily or regularly check for security updates for your computer operating system or for personal computer. Most security updates are aimed at reducing risks to your computer like detecting the files which contain virus; these may be data-related or otherwise. Make sure that your operating system and browser have the latest security patches installed or latest upgraded security systems. And, always install these only from trusted websites or well known sites.

  Install a personal firewall to prevent hackers or fraudsters from gaining unauthorised access to your computer or your personal data, especially if you connect to the Internet through a cable or a DSL modem. 

  Public access can be injurious: 

 Don’t leave the PC unattended after keying in information while transacting on the website or making online transactions or upgrading data. Avoid accessing or doing your bank online bank transactions at cyber cafes or on a share or public computer. Also, avoid locations that offer online connections through wireless networks (Wi-Fi), where privacy and security are minimal and maximum do not make online banking transactions there.

  Follow Bank instructions: 

Banks say that appropriate up gradations are carried out from time to time by their IT departments for risk mitigation but ensure that these up gradations are exactly coincided with bank rules and regulations. They issue instructions or showing demo to the customers to manage their accounts through virtual keyboards by way of which the characters or some letters or numbers typed by them are not identified by hackers. SMS alerts are also an important tool since any transaction carried out on account is reported to the account holder through an SMS and in this case please keep your mobile safely with you.

  Protection: 

Learn the various ways to protect yourself from online banking fraud schemes or various hacking or phishing systems. Detect Trojans that appear on your PC in the form of viruses, spyware or malware through Antivirus Software, anti Spyware, and Adware and delete all these files for minimal safety of your account.  Also, learn to keep your cards, documents and passwords safe, and monitor always your things very safely. Safety is the primary thing in all these cases.