Beware! If you suddenly notice money which has landed into your account from nowhere, it could be the handiwork of some fraudster cleverly making use of your account.

In a recent case solved by the City’s cyber police, an individual (all names withheld) received an sms from his bank which said that a sum of Rs 75,000 had been withdrawn from his account.  He received a jolt and registered a complaint.

The cyber police found that the money had made its way to the account of an engineering graduate  in Chennai. Surprisingly, he had nothing to do with the fund transfer as he had been duped by someone else. Sometime ago, he had received a mail from a person abroad who assured him of employment and asked him to send a resume along with details of his bank account. The graduate did so without checking the credentials of the mailer, only to learn later that he had unwittingly become an  accomplice in a crime. 

After zeroing in on him, police traced the culprit first to Russia and then to Japan. 

Sharing this incident with Metrolife, B A Mahesh, Superintendent of Police (SP), Homicide and Burglary squad, said, “If anybody sees money suddenly deposited in their account, they must not accept the money.  The matter must be intimated to the police immediately.”

Negligence was the reason behind another case solved by the cyber police. This dealt with a woman software engineer who left behind her account number and password on a paper at a cyber cafe recently.  Someone who chanced upon it used Rs 2,000 from it to recharge his mobile after carrying out transactions thrice.   Cyber crime police found him out and arrested him. Investigations  are still on.

  “Solving cyber  cases take between one and two weeks and is  done by tracking the IP addresses,” Mahesh said. “We have detected quite a few online bank hacking cases the past four to five months,” he added.

Missing money
A majority of the cases reported to the Cyber Crime Cell deal with money missing from accounts, said Ajai Kumar Singh, Director General of Police (DGP), Core of Detectives, Training, Special Units and Economic Offences.  “People who visit cyber cafes  leave behind information related to PAN card, bank accounts, internet IDs, etc  on small slips of paper there and this gives much scope for its misuse. Those who get hold of such vital information transfer money into their accounts with the help of the data,” he said. The DGP has these words of caution,  “Those accessing the net outside their  homes must be very careful with the information they carry with them in a physical  form. Browsers should take care to log out properly after checking their mail.”

In case you remember that you have left behind any  vital information related to your account outside your homes,  contact your bank and block the account immediately.

 Since youngsters are the ones who mostly deploy technology in daily life, the victims and the perpetrators  of cyber crimes fall in this age group,  Mahesh said.

Those visiting social networking sites and posting their personal details and photos have to take great care. “The information revealed online is being tampered with and the photos are used for pornographic purposes,” the SP added.

It is only since the introduction of the IT Act 2000 that cyber cases are being registered in India.  The first year saw a mere four cases being booked in the City while 2005 saw the most number of cases (42) booked (see box).

Shield your children
Online chat rooms are emerging as a danger zone for children worldwide. A major concern for parents are the pornographic sites and their easy accessibility. It is vital that parents instal filtering software like Cyber Nanny, Safe Kids and Cyber Patrol on their home computers to ensure their children do not gain access to adult content, said Mahesh.  A few softwares are available free of cost and can easily be downloaded.