Man-in-the-middle: Pune is falling prey to calls from afar

Caller hacks into computers, gets control of business transactions and steals money

Cyber crime is on the rise in Pune, and in most of the cases the victims have fallen prey to the ‘man in the middle’.

Hackers from outside India have been targeting Pune businessmen. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

This is how it works:

A person sitting in one corner of the world hacks into a person’s computer and gains information about a possible or scheduled business transaction.

The hacker then pretends to be a representative of the receiving end of monetary transaction and siphons money off while the involved parties remain oblivious of the fraud.

The worrying trend in the city of Pune is a threat to not only to the financial security but also privacy of the victim.

A few cases of cyber crime involving the practice of man-in-the-middle were detected in Kothrud area of the Pune city, according to Sudhir Hiremath, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Cell.

However, according to Senior Police Inspector Radhika Phadke as the third person is generally in a different country, a case cannot be built due to lack of jurisdiction.

Cyber crimes involving man-in-the-middle attack involves hacking an official email account of a company and finding out about its upcoming transactions with other companies.

The fraudster under a typical man-in-the-middle attack acts as an intermediary and intercepts and alters the user's computer details and later uses the information for fraudulent purpose.