'Harmless' email, call tricked victim

If you receive an email from your bank asking you to update personal details for security reasons, get in touch with your bank immediately before complying with it. Puja Changoiwala reports.

If you receive an email from your bank asking you to update personal details for security reasons, get in touch with your bank immediately before complying with it. Similarly, if your mobile phone service provider calls you and asks you for details to upgrade the system, do not entertain the call as you may end up losing money.

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After being victim to such a phishing trap, a Juhu-based businessman Shishir Sadani lost Rs16.52 lakh from his company's account to phishing fraudsters on March 21. All he did was update the password of his Nariman Point-based company, Aarogyam Packaging Solutions Private Limited's bank account through a fraudulent email and later revealed personal details to a caller who claimed to be an employee of his mobile phone service provider.

"The mail we received on March 20 looked extremely authentic. We did not doubt the mail and asked the office staff to make the changes," said Sadani, director of the company.

Around 11am on March 21, Sadani got a call on his mobile phone from a man who claimed to be an employee of his service provider. The caller told Sadani that their system was being upgraded and hence he needed to verify his details, following which he gave out his name, billing address, date of birth and email address.

After his phone was reactivated, Sadani got about 21 SMS notifications stating that a total of Rs16,52,005 had been transferred from his company's bank account to five different accounts across the country based in Meerut, Jaipur, Gazipur, Delhi and Kandivli in Mumbai.

"I also asked my father if he had made any transactions and he denied it. Fortunately, when I got in touch with my bank they were able to freeze a transaction of about Rs1.70 lakh that was being made to another account in Jaipur," he added.