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Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Nov. 19 Next time when you receive a distress e-mail from a friend or relative, asking you to send them money urgently to buy tickets back home from a far-off country, don’t rush to the nearest bank branch or a money transfer agency to transfer the funds. Instead call them up and find out whether they are really in distress and need money.

“We have found that the hackers are barging into the e-mail accounts of some people and getting access to the whole list of e-mail addresses of their friends and relatives,” Mr R.S. Praveen Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detective Department, Hyderabad), said.

After getting access to the new IDs, they would send e-mails (from your account), stating that they are stranded in a remote country and that they are not carrying their mobiles.

The content of the message might go like this: “I hope this message finds you the in best of health. I had travelled to Nigeria for official purposes. Unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel. Can you send me $3,500 today? I will repay soon after my arrival. Write me so I can let you know how to send the money. Keep this to yourself.”

There are other formats too. Taking the info from the letters in your mailbox, they would drop names of common friends and relatives in the messages to make the letters more credible.

After trying out the e-mail route to announce lottery results and dupe people, the hackers are now resorting to use mobile phones to do the trick.

“They are now sending SMS on mobile phones to announce the results of a big London lottery. To make you believe in the story, they will indicate the message centre number, give you an e-mail address,” he said here in a press release.

“If you proceed further, you will be asked to pay some process fee thru a money transfer agency to get the prize money,” he added.

“Do remember that you can’t win a lottery without buying a ticket. So, don’t get fall prey to such messages. The best way is to delete such unsolicited messages,” he observed.

More Stories on : Security | Internet | Andhra Pradesh

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