Cyber Criminals Create Fake Restaurant Websites And Offer Heavy Discounts To Cheat People

NEW DELHI: Food takeaways have never been more popular than it is now, thanks to the pandemic. To avoid the fees and challenges associated with food delivery apps, many restaurants have created their own websites. Cybercriminals are devising a variety of methods to take advantage of the trend and defraud citizens.

According to experts, consumers are being cheated by scammers by creating fake food ordering websites or restaurants site. Through these dubious websites, they steal their money and personal information.

Cybercriminals imitate the design of a restaurant’s (or fast-food franchise’s) website in order to create fake websites that appear authentic.

When you click on the link, choose food, and enter your banking information to pay, charges appear on your account, but the food never arrives. When the restaurant is summoned to investigate, they are unaware of the order. Through fake websites, cybercriminals obtain victims’ banking information, addresses, and other personal information.

When the earlier websites are reported to the authorities, fraudsters frequently change the name (URL) of the websites and continue their tricks under different website names.

Such frauds use an uncontrolled gateway to obtain your banking information, including credit card and debit card information, for excessive and unauthorised use. The issue was highlighted by the Threat Analytical Unit (TAU), Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

TIPS TO STAY SAFE:

–              Only order from websites you know and trust.

–              When in doubt, confirm with the restaurant.

–              Make sure the company is who they say they are by checking the spelling and checking the domain name.

–              Ensure the website address begins with https:// and check the address bar for a not secure message.

–              Check the age of a website’s domain. Use a website like https://whois.domaintools.com/ to check whether a website was established recently (as fraudulent websites are short living).

–              Look out for other variations of the fraud in cases of products & services sold online.

–              Inform and educate users regarding the threats posed by hypertext links contained in emails or attachments especially from un-trusted sources.

–              Report any such incidents on the cybercrime.gov.in portal and follow @CyberDost on Twitter to know more about safety tips.

Follow The420.in on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube & Telegram